Division of Infectious Diseases, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
Can J Public Health. 2020 Aug;111(4):462-465. doi: 10.17269/s41997-020-00396-1. Epub 2020 Aug 7.
COVID-19 mitigation strategies have led to widespread school closures around the world. Initially, these were undertaken based on data from influenza outbreaks in which children were highly susceptible and important in community-wide transmission. An argument was made that school closures were necessary to prevent harm to vulnerable adults, especially the elderly. Although data are still accumulating, the recently described complication, pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, is extremely rare and children remain remarkably unaffected by COVID-19. We also do not have evidence that children are epidemiologically important in community-wide viral spread. Previous studies have shown long-term educational, social, and medical harms from school exclusion, with very young children and those from marginalized groups such as immigrants and racialized minorities most affected. The policy and ethical implications of ongoing mandatory school closures, in order to protect others, need urgent reassessment in light of the very limited data of public health benefit.
COVID-19 缓解策略导致全球范围内的学校广泛关闭。最初，这些措施是根据流感疫情的数据采取的，在流感疫情中，儿童极易感染且在社区传播中起着重要作用。有人认为，关闭学校是必要的，以防止弱势群体（尤其是老年人）受到伤害。尽管数据仍在不断增加，但最近描述的并发症——儿童多系统炎症综合征极其罕见，儿童也很少受到 COVID-19 的影响。我们也没有证据表明儿童在社区范围内的病毒传播中具有流行病学意义。先前的研究表明，由于学校排斥，儿童会长期受到教育、社会和医疗方面的伤害，而最受影响的是非常年幼的儿童和那些来自移民和种族化少数群体等边缘群体的儿童。鉴于公共卫生效益的相关数据非常有限，为了保护他人，必须对持续的强制性学校关闭的政策和伦理影响进行紧急重新评估。
