Ethics of COVID-19-related school closures
Ethics of COVID-19-related school closures
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DOI：
10.17269/s41997-020-00396-1
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发表时间：
2020-08-07
影响因子：
4.3
通讯作者：
Stranges, Saverio
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Silverman, Michael;Sibbald, Robert;Stranges, Saverio
COVID-19缓解策略已导致全球各地的学校普遍关闭。最初，这些工作是根据流感爆发的数据进行的，在流感爆发中，儿童高度易感，在社区范围内传播很重要。有人认为，关闭学校是必要的，以防止对弱势成年人，特别是老年人的伤害。虽然数据仍在积累，但最近描述的并发症，即儿科多系统炎症综合征，是极其罕见的，儿童仍然明显不受COVID-19的影响。我们也没有证据表明儿童在整个社区的病毒传播中具有重要的流行病学意义。先前的研究表明，学校排斥会对教育、社会和医疗造成长期危害，其中年龄很小的儿童以及来自移民和种族化少数群体等边缘化群体的儿童受到的影响最大。鉴于有关公共卫生利益的数据非常有限，迫切需要重新评估目前为保护他人而强制关闭学校的政策和道德影响。
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.