Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: governments must balance the uncertainty and risks of reopening schools against the clear harms associated with prolonged closure.

Russell M Viner

; Christopher Bonell

; Lesley Drake ; Didier Jourdan ; Nicolette Davies ; Valentina Baltag ; John Jerrim ; Jenny Proimos ; Ara Darzi ; (2021) Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: governments must balance the uncertainty and risks of reopening schools against the clear harms associated with prolonged closure. Archives of disease in childhood, 106 (2). pp. 111-113. ISSN 0003-9888 DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2020-319963

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Evidence to support the effectiveness of global school closures in controlling COVID-19 is sparse. There is continued uncertainty about the degree to which school children are susceptible to and transmit COVID-19. Balancing the potential benefits with harms involves explicit trade-offs for governments, but there has been little recognition that low-income and middle-income countries face a very different set of trade-offs around school reopening from those in wealthy countries.