Too many factors to compare class to store
“Children can have a more difficult time adhering to these public health interventions ...”
Makeda Robinson Infectious disease fellow at Stanford University
In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools shut down nationwide to minimize the spread of the coronavirus. Months later, community outbreaks continue as some students and teachers return to the classroom for in-person instruction.
Though classrooms implemented safety steps to mitigate the challenges of reopening – such as mask requirements, social distancing measures and temperature checks – parents and teachers fear the possibility of a widespread outbreak. Others claim teachers are safer in a classroom “bubble” than in public spaces.
“TEACHERS ARE SAFER IN THE CLASSROOMS THAN THEY ARE AT WALMART,” reads a Facebook postfrom late July. “The numbers show it’s true – teachers are far safer in the classroom than out in a public space.”
The post cites data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 7% of COVID-19 infections are school-age kids. The post calls the classroom “one big herd immunity bubble for teachers.” The user claims that any COVID-19 threat comes from other adults because kids provide a “safety net” for teachers.
USA TODAY was unable to reach the user for comment.
This summer, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis compared school openings to visiting Walmart, Home Depot and other stores in his push to reopen schools for the fall.
“I’m confident if you can do Home Depot, if you can do Walmart, if you can do these things, we absolutely can do the schools,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Jacksonville.
Experts say comparison is difficult
Joshua Barocas, an infectious diseases physician at Boston Medical Center and an assistant professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine, said there are too many factors to make the claim that teachers are safer in a classroom than at Walmart.
“A person’s safety from COVID is determined by a number of factors including community prevalence, their own immune system, and how diligently people are implementing and adhering to preventive measures,” he told USA TODAY in an email.
Barocas said a person’s risk of contracting COVID-19 at school largely depends on measures that the school and teacher take.
Makeda Robinson, an infectious disease fellow at Stanford University, told USA TODAY there are various reasons why teachers are not safer in schools than in stores.
Part of the school day includes children “eating lunch, playing and drinking from drinking fountains,” she said in an email. “All activities which are difficult or impossible to do wearing masks and all activities that can be avoided at Walmart.”
Robinson said businesses such as Walmart have more employees to aid in the regulation of wearing masks, social distancing and hand-washing.
“Children can have a more difficult time adhering to these public health interventions, and a teacher in a classroom is often acting as the lone adult, tasked with giving instruction while also having the added responsibility of being a constant minder to the students,” Robinson said.
Another issue is exposure time.
“The difference is that in a retail store, you don’t have the same people there all day long. In a school, you have the same students sitting there all day long,” Allison Messina, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, told USA TODAY.
A comparable data point may be grocery shopping. Americans spend an average of 41 minutes per grocery store visit, according to the Time Use Institute.
Public schools operate in an average school day of 6.64 hours, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Teachers in Missouri, Mississippi, South Carolina, Iowa and Oklahoma have died since the fall semester started, The Washington Post reported.
The Kaiser Family Foundation said nearly 1.5 million teachers, or 1 in 4, are at a greater risk of serious illness if infected with COVID-19.
Our rating: Missing context
The claim that teachers are safer in a classroom than at a Walmart is MISSING CONTEXT. Experts agree that there are too many factors to definitively state which situation is safer.