Should The Schools Be Closed In Order To Control Influenza? (How To Keep Well)

• This week, Evans writes about the decision to not close schools in Chicago during the epidemic• He writes that he doesn’t think that anything was lost by the decision to keep city schools open• The influenza rate was not as high as other cities with populations over 500,000, most of which did close their schools• The reasons for not closing the city schools were 1) the disease was not unduly prevalent among schoolchildren, and instead mostly affected those of between 20 and 40 years of age, 2) children were thought to be safer in school where they could be looked after by teachers and school doctors and nurses than in the playgrounds and vacant lots• As a result of the decision, children have not had their educations interrupted, and the city has not paid for schools that were closed• He concludes, however, that this opinion cannot be considered final, because it is still too early to tell what affect the decision to keep schools open had on the epidemicNewspaper article1