Experts Warn Against Closing Schools Due To Omicron

Written By BlabberBuzz | Wednesday, 29 December 2021 09:45 PM
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Experts Warn Against Closing Schools Due To Omicron

Cases of COVID-19 have increased throughout the country amid the speedy spread of the Omicron variant. Still, Brown University School of Public Health Dean Dr. Ashish Jha told "Fox News Sunday" this is no excuse for closing down schools and making children go through remote learning once again.

Host Mike Emanuel noted that, according to the Burbio school tracker, more than 800 U.S. schools are now planning on shutting down in January instead of bringing students back in person after winter break.

At least four districts in Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York have opted to keep students at home in the first weeks back from the winter break in an effort to avoid a school outbreak once the holidays are over. The closures mean hundreds of thousands of students who attend the 286 affected schools will move to virtual learning in January.

Jha has suggested this might be a mistake.

"This really shouldn't even be on the table, and I'm disappointed to see this is happening," Jha declared, noting that schools now have the tools to remain open. President Biden said Tuesday that children are "as safe in schools as they are any place" if precautions are taken.

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"Schools should be absolutely the last place to close and the first place to open," he stressed, referring to the educational, emotional, social, and mental health benefits of in-person learning.

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Jha did acknowledge that if the pandemic causes staff shortages that make in-person learning a problem, that would be a different situation, but that "really should be the only context" in which schools close. While the Omicron variant has put the country into a frenzy in light of its rapid spread, Jha expressed that he hopes and expects that, like in South Africa, Omicron in the U.S. will "peak quickly and start coming down quickly as well."

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Still, Jha said he does expect the CDC to change the definition of what it means to be fully vaccinated, and that a third shot will likely be needed to have that status. "That is where the science is leaning," he conceded.

This is the third school year affected by this pandemic," Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association, told Newsweek. "Just when we thought this past October—when we had about 98 percent of kids back in school in person—that things were moving in the right direction, here we are right back where we were last year."

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