The Truth About Kids, School, and COVID-19
Federal health officials at the CDC this week called for children to return to American classrooms as soon as possible. In an essay in the Journal of the American Medical Association, they wrote that the “preponderance of available evidence” from the fall semester had reassured the agency that with adequate masking, distancing, and ventilation, the benefits of opening schools outweigh the risks of keeping kids at home for months.
The CDC’s judgment comes at a particularly fraught moment in the debate about kids, schools, and COVID-19. Parents are exhausted. Student suicides are surging. Teachers’ unions are facing national opprobrium for their reluctance to return to in-person instruction. And schools are already making noise about staying closed until 2022.
Into this maelstrom, the CDC seems to be shouting: Enough! To which, I would add: What took you so long?
Research from around the world has, since the beginning of the pandemic, indicated that people under 18, and especially younger kids, are , , and . But the million-dollar question for school openings was always about . The reasonable fear was
