10 Epidemiologists and Infectious Disease Experts On Whether They Are Sending Their Kids Back to School

There are no easy answers to the questions about bringing kids back into classrooms this fall. Parents, school administrators and educators must instead weigh two bad options: isolate children at home or risk them getting and spreading COVID-19 through in-person contact. That decision is daunting even for infectious disease experts and epidemiologists. Over the last few months, they have been forced to think about the pandemic not only as scientists and scholars, but as parents, and despite their wealth of knowledge, like any parents, these experts are grappling with uncertainty. There are ways to limit the spread of the COVID-19, including masks and ventilation, but there is no way to guarantee zero risk of disease transmission in schools. At the same time, remote learning can exact its own toll, setting back children’s mental health, academic achievement, and social development, and leaving their parents exhausted and demoralized. In interviews with TIME, 10 experts explained how they’re trying to strike a delicate balance: between their children’s academic and emotional needs; the risk to their communities; keeping their children and their families safe from the virus; and trying to preserve their own sanity and careers. Dr. Joshua Barocas—infectious disease physician and assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine at Boston Medical Center Barocas’s 7-year-old son and 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter are enrolled in ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news