Face-to-face education with inadequate mitigation measures increases the risk of COVID-19 for household members

People who live with children who go directly to school are at increased risk of reporting evidence of COVID-19, but teacher masking, symptom screening, and other mitigation measures at school increase that risk. It may be possible to minimize it. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Researcher at the Graduate School of Public Health.

For their study, researchers found Facebook-based COVID-19 symptoms ongoing in the United States over a two-period period from November 2020 to February 2021 before the vaccine became widely available in the United States. We analyzed about 600,000 responses from the survey. Children engaged in full-time school education from K to 12 like COVID-19 with fever, cough, dyspnea, etc. compared to children living with children attending school They were about 38% more likely to report symptoms. Exclusively in the home environment.

An important discovery was that school-based Mitigation measures— The survey asked about 14 mitigations — related to the low risk of each mitigation. For example, each major has a 9% lower risk of COVID-related illness, and each major has a 7% lower risk of a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. Risk is mitigated with each additional mitigation measure. Teacher masking and daily symptomatology screening seemed to be the most powerful risk-reducing agents.

This study was published online on April 29th Science..

The analysis included three results reported by Survey respondents: Diseases like COVID-19, ie fever and respiratory symptoms within the last 24 hours. Ageusia or ageusia within the last 24 hours; COVID-19 test was positive in the last 14 days.

Most kindergarten-to-high school schools implemented some mitigation measures, including mandatory masks for teachers, daily screening of student and teacher symptoms, and reduction of extracurricular activities, according to survey responses. .. Researchers found that when schools used seven or more mitigations, the excess risk associated with face-to-face school education was largely eliminated, and when ten or more mitigations were reported, they were completely eliminated. Did.

“These findings support the idea that mitigation measures at school can significantly reduce the risk of excess COVID-19 for adults living with children who go directly to school,” said the lead author of the study. Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology, said. Bloomberg School.

The issue of face-to-face education has been the subject of much debate in the United States since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to various school policies nationwide. This policy diversity has effectively launched school education and “natural experiments” with COVID-19 risk in the US population. The main concern is that children who go to school every day, even if they are less infected with COVID-19, may bring the virus back to parents and other adult families at high risk of illness.

To investigate these issues, wrestlers used the COVID-19 Symptom Survey. This is an ongoing Facebook-based survey run jointly with Facebook by the Delphi Group at Carnegie Mellon University, with approximately 250,000 responses per week. Researchers have found two recent periods from respondents in households with at least one child enrolled in school, from pre-kindergarten to high school (roughly last year’s Thanksgiving to Christmas, mid-January to 2 this year). I checked the answer (mid-month). .. Of the 576,051 people in this group, about 49%, or 284,789, reported that they were in households with children who went directly to school from kindergarten to high school rather than online or homeschooling.

In their analysis, wrestlers and colleagues examined how face-to-face school groups differed from online or homeschooling groups in terms of reported COVID-19-related symptoms and outcomes. They adjusted the results to explain obvious confounders, such as differences in local COVID-19 rates.

In addition to a 38% increase in the chances of getting a COVID-19-related illness among respondents in households with children who go to school directly, researchers have a 21% increase in the chances of losing taste and smell. I found. It is one of the major symptoms of COVID-19 and has increased the probability of being tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection by 30% in the last two weeks.

The strength of these associations appeared to increase with grade level. At K and pre-K levels, associations with COVID-19 results were not significant in all results, but the strength of these associations steadily increased and peaked at grade 9-12 levels. did. -Household members’ CoV-2 test was over 50%. These findings are consistent with previous studies suggesting that susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease is lower among younger children compared to older children.

The survey data included responses to COVID-19 mitigation measures at schools attended by children in respondent households. These mitigations included teacher-student masking obligations, extra space between desks, suspension of school clubs, sports and other extracurricular activities, and daily symptom screening between teachers and students. It was. Respondents with children in families who go directly to school reported an average of 6.7 mitigations at school. There is wide variability across the country, from an average of 4.6 measures in South Dakota schools to 8.9 in Vermont schools.

The analysis also found that most of the increased COVID-19-related risks were concentrated in schools with less than seven mitigations, and face-to-face school education. Increasing risk COVID-19-related results for respondents living with their children in schools with more than 10 measures.

“This study is limited because it is based on self-reported symptomatology and settings that do not allow students to be randomized to different educational modes and mitigations,” says Wrestler. “But having hundreds of thousands of respondents and the ability to control geographic and individual-level characteristics can help meet these limitations.”

He and his colleagues have face-to-face school education schoolBase mitigation measures will affect the spread of COVID-19 throughout the community.

“Home COVID-19 Risk and Face-to-face Education” by Justin Wrestler, M. Kate Grabowski, Keira Grants, Elena Buddy Jogoikoecha, C. Co-authored by Jessica Metocalf, Kali Lupton Smith, Andrew Asman and Elizabeth Stuart.