Doctors: Grade schools may be safer to reopen
Kids under 10 may be less likely to get virus, data shows
Elementary schools could potentially more safely reopen than schools for older students, infectious disease doctors said Thursday.
A panel with doctors from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) expressed concern about reopening schools, but also noted research that indicates younger children might be less likely to get COVID-19 or transmit it.
“There’s very good data that suggests that younger children are infected less frequently,” said Wendy Armstrong, a member of the board of directors at the IDSA and a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine. “There seems to be a difference between children under 10 and over 10.”
Opening elementary schools, versus schools with older children, “is definitely a strategy that should be considered,” she said. But even as studies indicate younger children may be less likely to have or transmit COVID, doctors emphasize that much depends on whether local cases are rising and schools use correct protocols.
Armstrong noted an Iceland study showed that children under of the age of 10 had an infection rate of 6.7%, and that for children older than 10, that rate nearly doubled.
If schools reopen, the doctors said openings must include protocols such as wearing masks and social distancing. Key will be access to rapid testing, Armstrong said. “Testing eight days later is not helpful,” she said, but added that a strategy where all kids were tested regularly would be nearly impossible.
Should schools reopen, said Tina Tan, an IDSA board member and pediatrics professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, there is no way to know which children are most vulnerable to getting COVID-19, or the mysterious related illness impacting some more severely, including some in Illinois.
“We know that children do get COVID-19,” she said. “They may not become as symptomatic as adults, but they do get the disease . ... There is a population of children that potentially could become very seriously ill with COVID, and there’s no way to predict which child.”
Tan would not recommend opening schools in a hot spot like Florida.
“When you have such surges of disease in the community, you’re basically asking for trouble if you open schools,” Tan said. “You’re bringing in now individuals from all across the community that potentially may be exposed to COVID, and you’re putting them in a more enclosed setting, so that if someone is infected regardless of what other protocols are in place, you still run a much higher risk of spreading COVID through that population.”
Right now, regarding rates of COVID in Illinois, Tan said, it is probably safe to open schools — provided all those precautions are in place, and that protocols exist if and when someone tests positive. She can foresee a scenario where some schools in one part of the city or state open, and others don’t.
“Everybody would like to have a one-size-fits-all solution, and that’s not ever going to happen,” she said.
She added, “Chicago is a challenge in that you have all different types of schools, meaning you have some schools that are more affluent, and they can afford to make all the changes possible. But it’s going to be those kids in the lower socioeconomic classes, where there’s not going to be equality.”
Armstrong said she is still deciding whether to send her high schooler back to school; she lives in Georgia, which has had a rise in cases.
Noelle Ellergson Ng, associate executive director of policy and advocacy at the School Superintendents Association, said school officials are feeling the pressure to reopen. But they will only do so “when it is safe for the students and staff that they’re responsible for,” she said.
“Just as the economy can’t reopen until the schools reopen, the schools won’t be able to fully reopen until we can get COVID under control,” she said.
It’s not simply preparing the schools; superintendents know how to open a school, she said. But they will also be addressing the mental health impact and trauma that children might have experienced in the meantime.
“That’s all on the shoulders of school districts,” she said.
Parents, Tan said, should inquire about protocols and speak up if some of the ones they listed — such as masking and distancing — are not apparent. And, she added, ensure children are up to date on their routine immunizations.
“One of the unintended consequences of COVID was that we saw a significant decline in immunization rates, and the last thing that you want to happen is to have an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease when school starts,” she said.