Expert: Keep schools closed until a vaccine

A Harvard-educated virologist on Friday said schools should not reopen until a vaccine for the coronavirus becomes available, hopefully by the end of this year.

“Households with vulnerable members would be taking a significant risk sending a child back to school before there is a vaccine,” said Peter Kolchinsky, a biotechnology investor trained in the study of viruses, and author of “The Great American Drug Deal: A New Prescription for Innovative and Affordable Medicine.”

He told the Herald “hopefully our leadership doesn’t give people in these households a false sense of security that puts them in harm’s way.”

Studies have shown that children can get infected by the virus, Kolchinsky said, and can pass it on to the elderly and people with underlying conditions, such as diabetes and cancer, who are particularly at risk.

So when a vaccine does become available, he said, the question becomes how do you make the best use of limited doses.

“Pick a school, and vaccinate all the student and staff households that have a vulnerable person, and then focus on the next school and the next,” said Kolchinsky, managing partner of RA Capital Management. “You don’t have to vaccinate a household where you have healthy people.”

Federal and state officials so far have been managing the response to the coronavirus, including the deployment of tests. So presumably they would be accountable for recommendations on how early doses of vaccines will be deployed to best effect, he said.

“Spreading vaccines too thinly would be counter-productive,” Kolchinsky said. “Better to adequately vaccinate all the people who don’t already have antibodies in all the households with vulnerable members that have a child attending a given school.

“That’s requires intelligent deployment of both antibody tests and vaccines,” he said. “That will open up the most schools, most quickly, with least risk to most vulnerable people, giving parents more leeway to go back to work. Hopefully everyone will wait for their school community to adopt this plan and deploy the early doses of vaccines.”

If some communities open up regardless, they would be taking extra risk, Kolchinsky said, and, at the very least, families with vulnerable members should plan to keep their kids home and do virtual schooling.

“So those schools would need to plan for hybrid teaching, with some students in class and others learning from home,” he said. “That’s its own challenge.”

Schools that reopen before a vaccine should require that everyone wear masks, spread students out to ensure social distancing, test for symptoms and have alternating shifts of students, Kolchinsky said.

In a statement on Friday, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Education said: “The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in consultation with medical experts and school administrators, is in the process of developing reopening guidance to help school districts. The initial guidance is expected to be released soon.”

 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Uz6GID