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Yes, Kids Can Safely Return to School—Even with COVID's Delta Variant on the Rise
YES, KIDS CAN SAFELY RETURN TO SCHOOL—
Even with COVID's Delta Variant on the Rise
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Naveena Bobba, MD and Theodore Ruel, MD
As parents and caregivers across San Francisco prepare for their children to finally head back to school this August, they are undoubtedly feeling a mixture of emotions.
Of course, they must be grateful that schools are reopening in person because of the immeasurable social and educational benefits their children will receive. They, like all of us, are also assuredly hopeful for a return to normalcy.
But it’s also completely reasonable to feel concerned with the recent rise in COVID-19 cases. The headlines each day tell us about how the highly infectious COVID delta variant has driven an increase in cases and hospitalizations across the nation, in California and here in the Bay Area. While it’s normal to feel these conflicting emotions, it’s also important to look at the data, science and facts surrounding school openings — as public health professionals have done from the beginning of this pandemic.
The data continue to show that schools can be safe places for our children to learn, socialize and play when the appropriate safety measures are taken. These measures include vaccinations for those who are eligible, universal indoor masking, frequent hand-washing, making sure staff and kids stay home when sick, and proper ventilation. For children under 12 who are not yet eligible for the vaccine, the good news is that serious forms of COVID are extremely rare. We have plenty of local case studies to back this data up.
In San Francisco, there were seven cases of COVID transmission in all schools with in-person learning among 48,000 students and teachers from September 2020 through June 2021, including the San Francisco Unified School District. All other cases reported at schools were related to community transmission outside of school. This includes the time period during the height of our winter surge. Moreover, there have been no verified outbreaks in San Francisco camps and learning hubs this summer.
The best way to protect our school communities is not to keep kids home — it’s to make sure that everyone in your household who is eligible gets vaccinated now. Despite recent news about breakthrough infections, vaccines are highly effective at preventing hospitalization and severe illness. The more adults and teens who are vaccinated, the more protection we offer to those who are not yet eligible for vaccines—including young school age children.
Anyone can go to sf.gov/get-vaccinated or call 628-652-2700 to book an appointment for a free vaccination. The good news for San Francisco is that we already have one of the highest vaccination rates in the nation, with 77% of our eligible population fully vaccinated, including teenagers in middle and high school. We’re well on our way to giving our kids the community protection they need. But we can still do better. As we carefully track and respond to the much more infectious delta variant, we need to be mindful that research shows current vaccines are still highly effective, even against this strain. In fact, vaccinated people are 10 times less likely to be hospitalized than those who haven’t yet gotten their jabs. To date, there have been no COVID-19 related deaths in San Francisco among the vaccinated.
There should be no delay in returning to school. On this we are in agreement with the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the California Department of Public Health and county health officers all over the Bay Area. The evidence clearly shows that at this time, the benefits of in-person school—academic learning, social-emotional growth, social and health services, and many more—outweigh the risks of COVID-19, provided that schools have the proper, multi-layered safety measures in place. Given the proven health and educational benefits of in-person learning, our priority must be to continue to work together to ensure a smooth transition back to school for all grades, at full capacity, when the school year begins in a few weeks. As health professionals, we are confident that schools can and should fully reopen for all grades—with safety measures in place. We urge school administrators, teachers, staff and families in San Francisco to work together to get vaccinated and to follow all the safety measures needed to stop COVID’s spread.
We look forward to a joyous return to school.
Naveena Bobba, MD is deputy director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
Theodore Ruel, MD is chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. This piece originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in July.
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