BOSTON — Just six weeks before the start of the new school year, an editorial written by doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital is making the case for a return to in-person learning.
The authors of the piece are Dr. Lloyd Fisher, president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Dr. Sandra Nelson, an infectious disease physician at Mass. General Hospital.
The doctors argue in the editorial that the shutdown was necessary at the time, but they’ve now learned children are less susceptible to COVID-19 infection and less likely to become severely ill when infected. They claim children have also not been major drivers of transmission in this pandemic.
These two doctors say there’s no way to completely eliminate risk, but they threw their support behind the state guidelines about reopening schools to minimize risk.
“The harms of remote learning have been felt most significantly by children already at risk,” the pair wrote. “Children who rely on school lunch programs faced added food insecurity. Lack of access to technology and online resources significantly limited remote learning. We remain concerned with how school closures will exacerbate achievement disparities across income levels and ethnic and racial groups.”
School districts across Massachusetts must provide their three plans to the state next month, one for in-person learning, one for remote learning and a hybrid of the two.
Decisions are expected by sometime in mid-August.
School districts across Mass. discussing ways to safely reopen
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