Schools are Major Hubs of Infection that Drive Spread In Society

Schools are where children spend most of their time, but, with densely packed classrooms, this is where they are most likely to pick up sickness, which results in absence for them as well as diminished performance in exams.

A large American study has shown that 70% of all Covid-19 infections start in a school. The children pass it on to each other and then to teachers and parents and it is taken into homes, where it spreads further.

This wider spread into homes and then to places of work and leisure leads to further pressures on NHS facilities and helps the virus to spread within them. Putting mitigation effort into schools and health facilities would pay off by breaking the chain of transmission significantly, and enabling safer healthcare provision, as well as the benefits of everyone being in a clean-air environment, including better cognitive performance.

A study recently published in Kansas City tracked 816 students and staff across a school year and found that at least 85% had a virus detected, and 80% had an illness episode. The study states, “schools are an important setting for infectious disease transmission.”

But they don’t have to be. We know that existing clean air technologies remove the pathogens that cause illness from the air.

By simply adding an air filter to each classroom and regularly opening windows, the number of coughs, colds, and Covid-19 infections that kids and their teachers catch at school and take home to their families and others could be significantly reduced. It would also increase attendance rates.