 | | Kindergarten students at a school in Bangkok returned on July 1, a delayed start to their academic year.Adam Dean for The New York Times |
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On Wednesday’s show, we spoke to Pam Belluck about the safety behind reopening schools in the U.S. As we enter the last month of the summer, the question of reopening schools continues to be front-of-mind for people around the world. So we asked Pam a couple of follow-up questions based on those we got from you. |
In the episode, while explaining a line of thinking about why it may be safer to reopen elementary schools before middle and high schools, you mentioned the growing evidence that children under 10 are less likely to spread the virus than older children. Why is that? |
Covid-19 seems to affect little kids differently than most other respiratory viruses, like the flu or cytomegalovirus, which are commonly spread by young children. Scientists are exploring whether young children are less likely to become infected with this new virus or simply less likely to get sick when they are infected. One theory is that younger children have fewer of the proteins that allow Covid-19 to enter lung cells and replicate. Another is that children are protected from developing serious symptoms because of differences in their maturing immune systems or in the cells that line the blood vessels. |
Milder symptoms may help explain why young children don’t spread the virus as much. If they aren’t coughing or breathing hard, they might not be propelling viral droplets far enough to reach another person. |
Schools bring together a lot of adults besides teachers. How are communities in the U.S. thinking about adult-to-adult interaction and transmission if schools reopen? |
Over half of the employees of public school systems are not full-time teachers — they are bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, aides, substitute teachers and others who fill roles that are vital to making school reopening possible. They serve in jobs that often pay lower wages and provide fewer employee benefits than teachers receive. And some will be asked to take on additional responsibilities when schools open. Custodians will be implementing procedures for extra cleaning and sanitizing; drivers in some districts may be asked to assess the health of children before allowing them to board the bus. |
Many school districts are trying to develop plans to protect these workers. Some intend to install plexiglass dividers to protect bus drivers, give them medical-grade face masks and limit the number of children on buses so the children are separated by six feet (steps that serve to protect children as well). Lunchtime will look different in many schools: Some will have individualized box lunches and children eating in their classrooms, so cafeteria workers are exposed to fewer people. |
Many of these precautions will take additional resources. And, since these are jobs that can’t be done online, districts will need contingency plans or substitute workers for staff members who get sick or are uncomfortable coming to work. |
You mentioned Israel as a country that’s had less success in reopening its schools. Why did it relax its class size restrictions? Did it see a parallel outbreak in its communities when it relaxed class sizes? |
Israel’s Covid-19 case counts have gone up in recent weeks, and it is experiencing a second wave of the pandemic after having largely gotten the first wave under control. It relaxed other pandemic restrictions around the same time as it reopened schools, so it’s not clear exactly what role the schools played and how much of the surge in cases was driven by social gatherings at weddings, parties and bars. |
It’s important to note that, while the U.S. can learn from other countries, none of them exactly mirror American circumstances. In Israel, for example, classes are typically large, so when they were divided into small-group capsules, each class still had about 18 students. Also, for a few days in May, the temperature was so hot that the Israeli government waived the mask requirement, and it’s unclear if that spurred disease transmission. |
Still, some public health experts in Israel say they recommended against relaxing the restrictions on class size, and they believe that the guidelines were eased because of political pressure and eagerness for the economy to fully reopen. Israeli citizens may also have felt that there wasn’t a great risk to lifting the restrictions, given that the country had successfully tamped down its infection rate in April and May. That’s a cautionary message for communities in the U.S. and elsewhere not to become complacent once they’ve managed to keep the virus in check. |
 | | “Come now, come dry your eyes, you know you a star, you can touch the sky.” This summer calls for a lot of Lizzo.Amy Lombard for The New York Times |
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It’s been a strange summer, to say the least. This week, when we asked each member of our team to share a song from their pandemic summer soundtrack, our producer Hans Buetow wrote back: “I am devoid of music or even joy in my life. SUCH IS THE WORLD RIGHT NOW, I CAN ONLY LISTEN TO THE WHISTLING WINDS THAT BLOW THROUGH THE EMPTY CHASM OF WHAT ONCE HELD MY SOUL … Oh, but also I do listen to a lot of Whitney Houston.” |
Hans went on to add 25 songs to our team’s summer playlist (we only asked for one). |
| Andy Mills: RAC (feat. Louis the Child), “Passion” |
| Asthaa Chaturvedi: Stylo G, The Fanatix, Nicki Minaj and Vybz Kartel, “Touch Down - Remix” |
| Lauren Jackson: Still Woozy, “Window” |
| Marc Georges: Lizzo, “Juice” |
| Rachelle Bonja: L’Impératrice, “Voodoo?” |
That’s it for The Daily newsletter. See you next week. |
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