Infections can be avoided by closing schools, but educational deficits and psychological stress can be serious.
Image: Lucas Bäuml
Homeschooling has taken a toll on students and impacted education. But it could become necessary again, says epidemiologist Berit Lange. What can we learn for further pandemics?
Ms. Lange, the role of schools in the pandemic has long been controversial. A study now says that there is no reliable evidence that schools have led to more Covid cases. Does that agree with your results?
Of course, you can take measures to reduce schools’ contribution to the infection process – but setting it to zero is very difficult apart from closures. At the population level, these can reduce the number of contacts and infections. We analyzed regional data from Germany and, using models, saw that the schools’ contribution to the incidence of infection varied greatly from March 2020 to April 2022: It depends on what the hygiene measures in the schools were like and what was happening in the population happened, for example through vaccinations. The contribution of schools has never been constant.