Like many of the pediatricians working in the community, it has been hard for me to hear about all the struggles children are having and not worry about what the long term impacts will be for these children being forced to socially isolated during the pivotal period of their lives. One aspect of the pandemic that is especially loathsome, and I think largely preventable, are school closures. We should be trying to do everything we can to gather as much data as possible to effectively advocate for students to attend school in person. This approach is especially important for the students from disadvantaged groups who stand to lose the most.
I was pleased to see recently some meaningful data related to the impact of opening schools during the pandemic that was published in the MMWR on January 29, 2021. The authors of this study determined that the spread of the virus was limited within the school setting even with widespread community spread, with a positivity rate of 7-40% in the community. Of course, appropriate strict measures were in place similar to the ones adopted in Ontario schools, such as mandatory mask use, social distancing, and cohorting of students. There are also some dissimilarities, the most glaring one is the setting of the study which was in a rural county in the USA. Whether this study is applicable in our more diverse communities would need to be tested.
Does this study indicate that keeping schools open through the pandemic at all costs? I don't know. But it is our duty to figure it out for the sake of children's well being. In an older opinion piece in the NEJM on Oct 21, 2020, the authors suggested that with greater surveillance testing in schools, not just the testing of symptomatic individuals, as a strategy to contain spread of the virus in schools, schools could be kept open through the pandemic. But that would mean having to put money and resources into the school system. Maybe we get the NHL organizers to help out in the effort; they have certainly been able to keep the games going despite everything that has been going on.
Of course, we will need to keep analyzing the gathered information and refining the process, but that is how we are going to move forward and get out of this mess. And as pediatricians, we play a special role in giving a voice to those who don't have a voice. With better data we can speak more confidently about how to address children's needs and health. We can help parents feel more confident in their decision to send their children to school. We can advocate to the highest levels of decision making in this province to open schools safely. We can provide guidance to educators and schools to help them feel safe when schools are reopened. We show the greater community the way out. But we need the cold hard numbers to be able to provide that guidance.
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