Keep schools open during pandemic

Last week, a prominent epidemiologist called for Jakarta to stop face-to-face learning until March, following the discovery of 67 positive cases of COVID-19 in schools. These cases constituted roughly less than 5 percent of overall cases based on available data.

The highly transmissible Omicron variant makes this feel urgent as it seems set to spread widely. But caution on closing schools may be wise, however, with the future of children at stake. To advocates of a more risk-averse approach to open schools, let's ask two questions. Who is to say the next variant will not be even more transmissible and perhaps even more lethal? Students have lost two years already.  Exactly how long are we prepared to sacrifice their chance at a better future while waiting for an unknown pathogen to be defeated?

As prominently profiled by the author Michael Lewis in The Premonition: A Pandemic Story , schools certainly are a powerful transmitter of infection. Children sit close together in buses, like to study in groups and tend to congregate more closely than adults. And keeping masks on young children can be a challenge.