Even as we take significant steps to distance ourselves from one another to “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus pandemic, one of the hardest decisions has been whether to close schools.

There are strong arguments on both sides.

The case for shutting down schools

The biggest concern of many experts is that if we get too many infections too fast, the number of sick people could overwhelm the system’s capacity to care for them. By slowing transmission in the population, we flatten the curve, and keep the number of people sick at any one time at a manageable number.

Although most children do not appear to suffer much when they contract the virus (many probably don’t even know they’re sick), they do contract it, and they can give it to others.

Adults can be given instructions on how to prevent person-to-person transmission, and can be relied upon to follow those instructions to varying degrees, but it’s almost impossible to get children, especially younger ones, to do so. If you have a child, you most likely rolled your eyes if you read my recent article about the importance of getting children to wash their hands rigorously, cough into their elbows only, and not touch their face.