New Covid school closures condemned by scientists

Scientists expressed outrage after schools in two US states closed facilities and switched to remote learning following a rise in Covid cases.

Alabama and Tennessee announced the closure of two schools — affecting more than a thousand children — just days into the new academic year, with officials saying the virus had forced them to shut and carry out a ‘deep clean.’

But leading experts said the move was of ‘no value’ and flew in the face of swathes of evidence suggesting school closures hamper children’s learning, social development and ability to develop natural immunity to common infections.

Professor Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University said:

“If you keep closing schools for acute respiratory infections you have a problem. You will be closing every winter. We have disrupted children enough and this will only mean they will continue to be behind with learning.”

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, said:

“Closing schools should never be countenanced for Covid. There is no value in doing this. There is no evidence a deep clean does anything to reduce the spread of Covid and closing schools won’t stop the spread. Covid is incredibly common and circulating in the human environment at high levels and won’t cause children significant harm.”

At one of the schools, children had to abandon their desks and revert to remote learning for two days — a move reminiscent of the early days of Covid. And there are fears that more disruption could be in store for students in the coming months, with states like New York, New Jersey and Michigan, following suit.

Johnson-Abernathy-Graetz (JAG) high school in Montgomery, Alabama, closed for two days and switched to remote learning just four days into its new term amid a surge in Covid cases. Stigall elementary in western Tennessee also closed for a day just a week into its new term for deep cleaning.