Thread by @ShellyMBoulder

1/My public comments to the @BVSDcolorado board meeting on 12/8. I am an engineering professor @CUBoulder and an expert in engineering controls for airborne infectious diseases. @DougChem @epibuff

2/I was instrumental in helping CU Boulder open its campus safety. we have had ~50 cases of COVID-19 positive students in the classrooms and not a single case of transmission.

3/This pandemic is uniquely defined by superspreading events. These account for a majority of the cases but are caused by <20% of the infectious. This is through long-range exposure and mitigated by reduced occupancy indoors and improved ventilation and air cleaning.

4/but then most infectious people do not transmit at all or transmit to one or two within their household - this is through short-range exposure and is mitigated by masks and distancing.

5/My comments are directed at schools using the case rate per 100,000 or the positivity rate to decide when to go to remote learning. context is important. Sadly, prisons, skilled nursing facilities and food processing plants have had strong surges of late in CO.

6/University campuses have had surges as well. But those are isolated outbreaks (if handled appropriately). So those raw numbers can be misleading. The metrics were a negotiating tool between districts and teacher unions. They hold no real “value” w/o that important context.

7/We must look at all the available data that we have accrued over the past 9 months. We have not seen evidence of clusters of infections from open schools. Most teachers’ infections can be traced to a spouse or community exposure.

8/The best metric for whether to have in-person learning is whether the school can implement appropriate safety measures. And these are mandatory mask wearing, reduced occupancy indoors, increased ventilation and supplement with filtration, use of carbon dioxide sensors to ensure

9/...adequate outside air ventilation and a good plan to contact trace. Applying more targeted quarantine guidelines is also important, to quarantine if in close contact for more than 15 min.

10/I want to end with an anecdote from my COVID musicians research project sponsor - He lives in Indiana. In his county this week's positivity rate is 19%. The Schools are open. The positivity rate since Aug in the schools in his county is 1.4%.

11/This is consistent with published studies and the data on the Brown University dashboard. The schools are a much safer place for the students and staff to be than out in the community for many reasons not to mention that their chance of getting COVID-19 is much lower.

12/When the district tried to close the schools in Indiana because of the high positivity rate, all the school administrators said “no” we are not closing. and they are keeping the schools open. school cases are almost always acquired within the community.

13/I wish we had this kind of commitment and leadership @BVSDcolorado. But we have not seen much leadership and a lack of ability to make policy decisions that elevate the wellbeing of our kids.

14/This remote learning is devastating to their mental health. And there is no reason to subject them to this any longer – districts across the country are operating safely. Europe bent their curve with open schools.

15/I strongly urge @BVSDcolorado to step, move schools to in-person learning w/ proven layered mitigation approaches, just like the surrounding school districts in the area, as called for by the CDC, Dr. Fauci, and @jaredpolis (NOTE private schools in @bouldercolorado are open)