School Closures May Have Limited Effect On Containing COVID-19, Research Suggests; Stay-At-Home Orders Not Best Approach, Some Scholars Say

Reuters: School closures will have little impact on COVID-19 control, review finds
“School closures do not tend to help contain the spread of infections during outbreaks of disease such as COVID-19, but will have a big impact on how societies restart after lockdown, scientists said on Monday. Data on the effects of school closures on COVID-19 are limited as the pandemic is still under way, but researchers at University College London said evidence from flu epidemics and outbreaks caused by other coronaviruses suggests their impact on the spread of the disease will be small…” (Kelland, 4/6).

Washington Times: Public health scholars: Stay-at-home orders not best approach to pandemic
“A faction of public health scholars says there may be a better way to approach the coronavirus pandemic than the shelter-in-place rules that have brought the U.S. economy to a screeching halt. Their views are outside the current mainstream of the medical community. But their scientific take is anchored in two statistical threads that have held up in data collected from around the world over several weeks…” (Varney, 4/6).

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