Should schools close for coronavirus?

[admin]

Schools must weigh any potential benefit of closures with a slew of other factors, such whether parents will be able to take time off work.

Should schools close for coronavirus? : Read more

 

[LisaSummit2]

100% YES!!!!! My kids are grown but if this virus was in our city when my kids were young, yes my kids would be pulled out whether school was advocating it or not! Talk about a swarming petri dish of contamination.

 

[Lae12]

I think they should close to be careful. Sure its not that deadly to teens but if they get it and have anolder person in home who is weak or people who get sick easily they really need to consider these people. My family all has a low white blood cell count and gets sick easily. I hope they stay safe.

 

[Limey1970]

It's also worth noting that school closures in particular also affect the health care workforce (lower paid health workers stay home to care for their kids so rates of absenteeism rise) - and part of the goal is to keep the health system capacity above the demand from sick people.

See:

Modelling the impact of local reactive school closures on critical care provision during an influenza pandemic

Despite the fact that the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza strain was less severe than had been feared, both seasonal epidemics of influenza-like-illness and future influenza pandemics have the potential to place a serious burden on health services. The closure ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[sward]

Public schools in the UK give free lunches to kids, it's a bit worrying for low income familys if schools get cancelled as a lot of familys rely on those meal subsidys to make ends meet. Just another way folks will get effected... I'm sure they don't want infections to spread, but working out where to get that extra cash from is going to be hard, if closures happen.