Abstract
In-person schooling has proved contentious and difficult to study throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Data from a massive online survey in the United States indicates an increased risk of COVID-19-related outcomes among respondents living with a child attending school in-person. School-based mitigation measures are associated with significant reductions in risk, particularly daily symptoms screens, teacher masking, and closure of extra-curricular activities. A positive association between in-person schooling and COVID-19 outcomes persists at low levels of mitigation, but when seven or more mitigation measures are reported, a significant relationship is no longer observed. Among teachers, working outside the home was associated with an increase in COVID-19-related outcomes, but this association is similar to other occupations (e.g., healthcare, office work). While in-person schooling is associated with household COVID-19 risk, this risk can likely be controlled with properly implemented school-based mitigation measures.
Thanks, this looks like a very nice study. They’ve done a lot to try and control different confounding factors, and to handle the fact that in-person schooling is associated with other COVID-19 related things such as income, location, and minority status.
Bottom line is that attending or teaching at an in-person school increases the risk of the individual and the individual’s family catching COVID-19, but the increase in risk is small and can be reduced even more if everybody just wears a mask and stays home when they’re sick. Families will have to weigh that risk against the benefits of in-person school.
I know that is something that many people argued up thread, but it is very good to see empirical evidence that it works out that way.
For perspective on these odds ratios, keep in mind that smoking gives an odds ratio of around 7 for developing lung cancer.
living in a household with a child engaged in full-time in-person schooling is associated with a substantial increase in the odds [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.38, 95% CI 1.30-1.47] of reporting COVID-19 like illness (CLI, fever of at least 100°F, along with cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing), loss of taste or smell (aOR 1.21, 95% CI 1.16-1.27), or a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result within the previous 14 days (aOR 1.30, 95% CI 1.24-1.35)
Those odds ratios go down further when the school takes even basic precautions, such as masking and distancing. The more precautions, the better.
Teachers working outside the home were more likely to report COVID-19-related outcomes than those working at home (e.g., Test positive aOR 1.8, 95% CI 1.5-2.2; fig. S15 and table S13). The confidence interval summarizing the elevation of risk overlapped with corresponding intervals associated with working in healthcare (aOR 1.7, 95% CI 1.5-1.9) and office work (aOR 1.6, 95% CI 1.5-1.7).
Vaccinations of teachers should reduce this even more.
Yep, if several mitigation strategies are used.
Here’s some more interesting data. The demographics are shifting more toward school age kids possibly due to adults getting vaccinated, more in person classes, and school sports. Children Now Account For 22% Of New U.S. COVID Cases. Why Is That? : Coronavirus Updates : NPR
Finally an epidemiologist saying what I have for over a year, at a time when kids’ cases are shooting up leading to a record number of children in hospitals 
“This study showed that even the youngest of children readily transmit the virus,” said Zoe Hyde, an epidemiologist at the University of Western Australia, who was not involved in the research.
She added: “The key takeaway for me is that it clearly shows that there’s transmission from children occurring in the household. This means we urgently need to think about how we’re going to protect schools when they reopen shortly.”
During the early months of the pandemic, some scientists suggested that young children, in particular, rarely got infected with or transmitted the virus. But those observations may have been distorted by the fact that most children had few social encounters during that time.
“I think they were biased by the fact that children were sequestered at home,” said Dr. Tina V. Hartert, a respiratory epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University, who was not involved in the new study. “They were recommended not even to play with neighbors, they didn’t go to school, they didn’t go to day care.”
I don’t have kids, but I’m really really worried about the littlest folks I know given masks being optional, teachers’ vaccinations being optional, and vaccines for 5-11s still apparently months away.
Pay walled (free).
The suggestion last year was that school aged children weren’t transmitting the virus. Even then, there was no information on babies and toddlers, which, from the teaser, seems to be the focus of the article you linked.
As I understand it, all the epidemiology information from last year has been thrown out, because the Delta is different. so the question about school age children is still open. It’s looking pretty bad a present.
(Babies and toddlers are known to have a different immune history and immune system result)
But the suggestion was based on faulty studies unless you have some that are better than what was put forward back then. One of the primary studies that was put out back then started with the premise that a virus was brought into the house by the first symptomatic person, not by any testing. An asymptomatic kid could have been patient zero in every single household of the study and the study could have ended with the same outcome.
Like so many others, I guess I’m well and thoroughly sick of the Freedum Fighters’ (in)actions in the face of the pandemic.
I can’t help wondering whether the “My child, my choice” (re: mask mandates in public schools) contingent will also be protesting the swim pants/diaper requirement held by most public pools for kids who aren’t potty trained.
I mean … the swim pants/diapers aren’t perfectly effective, right ?
https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/swimmers/swim-diapers-swim-pants.html
Some research has looked into how well swim diapers and swim pants are able to keep feces (poop) and infection-causing germs from leaking into the pool. Even though swim diapers and swim pants might hold in some solid feces, they are not leak proof. Swim diapers can delay diarrhea-causing germs, like Cryptosporidium , from leaking into the water for a few minutes, but swim diapers do not keep these germs from contaminating the water. No manufacturers claim these products prevent leakage of diarrhea into pools.
“My Child, My Choice. Eat $h1t, Michael Phelps !”
Indeed.
But more generally …
I think about the number of laws under which we ALL live, and how we still enjoy more freedoms than almost any other nation in the world. But this is the line ? This is the line between freedom and tyranny ?
Is that laid out in some book somewhere ? I’d like to understand it better.
Yesterday our county went back under a mask mandate. I’d been planning to go to the meeting to speak in support of the mandate, from an educator perspective (i.e., even though we already have a mandate in schools, a community-wide mandate would lower community transition and keep our schools safer thereby). But the meeting was postponed due to weather, so I was unable to attend.
Holy crap am I ever glad I didn’t.
I listened to some of the public comment online while I worked. Every single person I heard spoke against the mandate. Some were calm: “I’m a chiropractor, and I’ve been researching COVID since April 2020, and I’ve successfully treated many patients with Hydroxychloroquine and Vitamin D.” Others were bonkers: “I WILL NOT BE SILENCED! WE THE PEOPLE ARE HEREBY SERVING YOU! [ma’am you may not approach the podium–officer please escort her from the premises]”
My favorite was the grandmother (her self-identification) who said, “I know some people will laugh, but this is true: wearing a mask is part of a Satanic ritual! Did you ever stop to think why they say to keep six feet of distance, not seven or thirteen?”
They don’t pay me enough to jump in that gator pit.