According to a poll conducted by a teacher advocacy group, 42 percent of school staff members in South Carolina say they have an underlying health condition that puts them at an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19, such as obesity, heart conditions, Type 2 diabetes, kidney disease and more. While we don’t know similar numbers for teachers across the country, I expect they would largely mimic these results.
This study comes as the American Academy of Pediatrics published an editorial from two pediatric infectious disease specialists arguing that children very rarely spread COVID-19.
They point to studies in Switzerland, China, Australia, and France in which children infected by COVID-19 almost always got the virus from an adult, not the other way around.
The editorial argues that if schools follow social distancing guidelines and take into account rates of transmission in their communities, schools can and should reopen in the fall.
We’ll soon know whether school systems across the country decide to reopen.
