Harvard expert outlines recommendations for school reopenings
This is part of our Coronavirus Update series in which Harvard specialists in epidemiology, infectious disease, economics, politics, and other disciplines offer insights into what the latest developments in the COVID-19 outbreak may bring. Most American public schools will be bringing students back in the fall, a Harvard healthy buildings expert said, and districts should employ a broad risk-reduction strategy proven effective in places like hospitals — where maintaining appropriate distancing isn’t always possible — to keep them safe. Joseph Allen, assistant professor of exposure assessment science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said while the goal should be zero COVID-19 cases in schools and elsewhere, the national containment strategy has failed. That leaves school officials facing a difficult decision as to whether schools can be reopened safely in the fall despite continued community transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Allen’s answer is a qualified yes: There will...