If we want to reduce the risk of COVID – 19 transmission in schools, every single student needs to be wearing a mask.
That’s from Dr. David Fisman, an epidemiologist with the University of Toronto, who says that needs to be paired with smaller class sizes.
“Children under age ten are less likely to show symptoms of COVID, but that’s not the same as not being infected, or not being infectious,” he explains.
Since schools opened up, Fisman says students have been tested more and that the rate of infection among young people is similar to those seen in older adults.
Fisman feels masks should be worn in every classroom from junior kindergarten through to grade 12, not just for grades three and up. He claims we’re seeing all around the world that kindergarten students are fully capable of wearing a mask throughout the school day.
Fisman adds that having kids back in school is only one part of reducing transmission.
“We know from past influenza pandemics that autumn waves are much larger than initial springtime waves. It’s also increasingly apparent that SARS-COV2 spreads more readily during colder seasons, as we saw during the Australian winter,” Fisman explains.
