(CN) — Like many parents this summer, Dr. Jennifer Greenfield weighed whether to send her kids to school in person this fall as the much more contagious delta variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 surges across the country.
“I really struggled with the decision to send my kids to school in person, I think it’s incredibly important for them,” Greenfield said.
Her twin seven-year-olds — second graders — have been in school nearly a month, wearing masks the entire time.
The elementary school they attend in Douglas County, Colorado, where masks were initially voluntary, is now complying with a mask mandate after the Public Board of Health opted to require them for unvaccinated elementary school students, while forging a similar mandate for older kids.
Still, Greenfield, who is an associate professor at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work where she researches the economic impacts of long-term health concerns and advocates for paid sick leave, worried about the spread of Covid-19 among students at her kids’ school, particularly when they gather unmasked in the cafeteria at lunch or play on the playground.
So she donated a $200 HEPA filter to her kid’s classroom.
“I was thinking, ‘I’m going to spend that much in a couple co-pays if my kids get sick, so I might as well do the upfront cost and try to keep them from getting sick,” Greenfield said.
Masks prevent the spread of Covid in schools
While most studies have looked at how masks prevent the spread of the disease in adults, scientists now have some data on what happens when masks are used — or not — in schools.
A study published this month found universal use of surgical face masks to be the second most effective intervention for preventing transmission of Covid-19 in schools, behind natural ventilation of opening windows for the entire school day.
Combined interventions — through what’s know as the Swiss Cheese Model, in which "holes” where the virus can escape are “plugged” through layers of interventions including ventilating and filtering the air, masking, social distancing, disinfecting, testing and the like — are highly effective at preventing the spread of Covid-19 in schools.
Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study showing just how contagious the delta variant can be in a school setting.
At an elementary school in Marin County, California, between May 23 and June 12, 12 of 24 kids in a classroom exposed to an unvaccinated teacher who tested positive for the virus became infected.
All kids sitting in the front row of the classroom closest to the teacher became infected, while three of five kids in the second row were infected with Covid-19.
The teacher frequently took off her mask to read aloud to students despite a mandate requiring students and teachers to wear masks indoors.
Dr. Kim Prather, an aerosols expert at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who studies how pollution and bacteria can enter the atmosphere from the ocean, was among the University of California, San Diego, professors to advise the San Diego Unified School District in creating its Covid reopening plan.
She said “the best things masks do is block the virus coming out of someone sick who doesn’t know they’re sick.”
Prather said kids don’t typically present Covid symptoms and become “silent spreaders” of the virus, especially when around others at school.
“Once it’s out in the room, then we have to think about other layers of protection like ventilation, opening windows and doors, filtration, all these things start to become important,” Prather said.
Prather is so concerned about the spread of Covid in schools, she held a 3-hour virtual event with experts around the country to discuss how the delta variant is spread and what parents and schools can do to prevent it.
An infected person can carry 1,000 times the viral load as the alpha virus, making it nearly as contagious as chickenpox, Prather said.
“Masks are more important than they’ve ever been, and that’s our only hope. If kids don’t wear masks in school, the school will close,” Prather said.
Lagging in the response to delta
But even though the delta variant is more contagious than the original iteration of Covid-19, schools are failing to respond accordingly.
Dr. Alex Huffman, a chemistry professor at the University of Denver, said school districts, especially those he’s worked with in Colorado, are not accounting for increased risks to students posed by the delta variant.
Some schools in his state have even reduced Covid safety measures implemented in 2020, citing few transmissions last year when the virus was not as contagious.
That response has prompted Huffman and his wife, who are parents of three unvaccinated children under age 12, to go to two separate schools every afternoon to pull their kids out for lunch because their schools are not allowing students to eat outside.
“When they are at lunch, when they're eating or drinking, they take their mask off, and therefore they take down their primary defense,” Huffman said.
He added: “One of the places that I'm the most stressed in general, as an aerosol scientist, is the risk at lunchtime when everybody is in these cafeterias eating together. We decided since they're not going to allow our children to eat outside, we're going to have to take things into our own hands and to pull them for lunch.”
Like Greenfield, health care worker Virginia Baldwin donated HEPA filters to the classrooms of her children, who are in second and sixth grades.
That’s after advocating for seven months for the air filters to be utilized in elementary school classrooms in Floral Park-Bellerose Union Free School District located on the border of Queens, New York.
The school district performed an audit of its ventilation system last year but has so far opted not to install portable HEPA filters in classrooms, Baldwin said.
Baldwin had to get approval from the school board, who, initially said parents couldn’t donate “appliances” to classrooms.
“I pushed back with a bit of humor, saying ‘it’s not a toaster oven,’” Baldwin said.
After months of pushing, the school district approved her $2,000 donation of four $500 filters earlier this month.
“HEPA and CO2 filters are common-sense, low-cost and low-maintenance — it kind of checks all the boxes,” Baldwin said.
“I’m a health care worker, my vaccine is waning and I’m sending my kids to school a month before my booster. Right now, the short-term solution is to have cleaner air in classrooms,” she added.
Follow @@BiancaDBruno
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
-
Emergency abortion care mandate splits Supreme Court April 24, 2024