Reopening schools is an important part of Pres. Biden’s covid response plan, but that plan is likely to be delayed by negotiations in Congress and even once passed will take so long the school year will mostly be over by the time it’s implemented.
What’s more, it’s questionable that schools can be opened safely with new covid variants in play. The new study showing schools can be opened safely was done before those more infectious variants emerged.
Let’s remember that the UK variant spread rapidly in England even during a lockdown in which the only thing still open were schools. From an article about this:
“The early data was collected during the time of the November lockdown where schools were open and the activities of the adult population were more restricted,” Gandy said. “We are seeing now that the new virus has increased infectiousness across all age groups,” he continued.
Opening schools too quickly with the new variants risks a new surge, but with the announcement of the new Johnson and Johnson vaccine, we potentially have a new supply of vaccine available soon that’s not counted in the current vaccine supply numbers.
What’s more, schools and college dormitories offer centralized locations where health officials can potentially vaccinate lots of people all at once without having to worry about the logistics of scheduling appointments. And the one-shot nature of the J&J vaccine would avoid the problem of getting the younger population to come in for a second shot, which might be especially difficult if first shots end up being delivered at the end of the school year, making second shots a matter of making an appointment. Current vaccination priorities could make that very likely.
Schools can be the source of massive spread with the new variants and young people generally have been sources of spread because of their lower rate of adherence to covid safety guidelines. Therefore, vaccinating schools and college dormitories would protect everyone, including the most vulnerable populations by potentially reducing those populations as source of spread.
Schools also reflect the wide diversity of our population, which could mean a more equitable distribution.
These factors argue for short circuiting the current CDC priority to do mass vaccinations at schools and college dorms, using the increased supply we’re going to have with the J&J vaccine. That’s especially true given that the J&J vaccine shows itself to be somewhat less effective than the vaccines we have. Giving the stronger vaccines to older populations would be consistent with what has been traditionally done with flu shots and makes sense given the increased risk those populations bear.
Vaccinating schools en mass would get us to herd immunity faster and allow safe reopening of the schools much faster, which would help the children and the whole country in numerous other ways as well.
