Thread by @MonicaGandhi9

SCHOOL CLOSURES: Wow, think we should invest in emotional support for children instead of closing schools again after prolonged schools closures last year (that led to mental/emotional difficulty).

I gave talk in Pediatric Grand Rounds this am at UCSF which made me look more deeply at the history of school closures for infectious diseases in US. School closures were ALWAYS last resort & only happened for raging infections (esp those worse for kids than adults like measles)

In influenza pandemic of 1918 (encourage you to read this article), schools were not closed in NYC (& Chicago/ New Haven) because progressive cities (we really changed!) & out of 1 million children, 750K were not from affluent families; schools place for food, safety, learning

Despite opposition, public health officials in these progressive cities said, no, we are not going to close schools; children are better off in schools. This was in a pandemic that actually affected very young & older unlike COVID which has increasing severe disease with age

Would encourage reading this interesting article- well known that children needed school so ventilation was main strategy employed (open windows, outside) for a respiratory pathogen and schools either kept open whole time or opened soon.

There were some of the strategies employed; school nurses for the first time.

Since children "better off in school", strategies employed to keep them there

These were some of the strategies employed; school nurses in school for the first time

Topsy turvy pandemic response in the US

Oh I see we didn’t learn anything. Ok.
Detroit school district moves to virtual learning 3 Fridays in December freep.com/story/news/edu… via @freep

I and co-authors wrote a piece published last week (@sdbaral, @drklausner) that stressed the importance of keeping schools open, avoiding lockdowns/abandoning ineffective mitigation procedures, & vaccines (including global equity) to fight the pandemic
bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…