Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Safe Schools: Administrators Weigh Benefits Of Online Classes Vs. In Person, And Lots Of Testing, Masks, Social Distancing
Roll Call: Colleges Weigh How To Confront COVID-19 As They Plan To Reopen
Across the country, colleges and universities are determining how to safely reopen their campuses for in-person classes and determining how campus life will need to change to protect people from the virus that causes COVID-19. The issue is one of numerous societal challenges that a wide range of officials have to confront in individual decisions that could each impact public health while the world waits for vaccines or treatments. (McIntire, 6/3)
Los Angeles Times: USC To Reopens This Fall With Online And In-Person Classes
USC will bring students back to campus for the fall semester amid the coronavirus crisis with several safety measures that include both online and in-person classes, more spacing in dorms and testing for COVID-19, President Carol L. Folt announced Tuesday night. The highly anticipated decision was certain to hearten many students, many of whom found online learning alienating, and their families who balked at paying USC’s $58,000 annual tuition and fees for classes on computers. (Watanabe, 6/2)
CIDRAP: How To Reopen Schools In Fall? Experts Weigh In
To reopen schools in the fall as safely as possible, communities need to suppress the spread of COVID-19 this summer while preparing a rigorous public health response to outbreak flares, public health and education experts said in a commentary published yesterday in JAMA. Joshua Sharfstein, MD, and Christopher Morphew, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said that while it's unclear whether school closures this spring tamped demand for hospital beds, it is clear that they harmed many of the 55 million kids missing months of in-person education and the other benefits it entails. (Van Beusekom, 6/2)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Gov. Mike DeWine Intends To Reopen Ohio Schools This Fall
Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday that he intends to open schools in the fall to students across the state. “The goal is to have kids back in the classroom,” DeWine said, barring some unforeseen escalation of the coronavirus. (Kilpatrick, 6/2)
Bangor Daily News: There’s No Plan Yet For Maine Schools To Reopen, But They Won’t Go Back To Normal This Fall
As Maine schools wait for some direction from the state to finalize their plans for reopening in the fall, at least one thing is clear: Schools will not be the same places they were before COVID-19. How different K-12 education will look come September is still unknown due to the lack of detailed state and local plans and a virus situation that could rapidly change. But Maine schools, like all others nationwide, will have to implement robust safety precautions to ensure a safe return to in-person learning after their buildings shut down in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Pendharkar, 6/3)
Stateline: College Students Want Their Money Back. It'll Be Tough To Get It.
In total, more than 2,000 pandemic-related lawsuits against a variety of businesses, groups and officials had been filed by the end of May, according to the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, which has been tracking the cases. Many involve plaintiffs seeking compensation for what the pandemic has taken, as well as taking aim at governments and politicians for their restrictive orders. (Povich, 6/2)
The Wall Street Journal: Is It Safe To Reopen Schools? These Countries Say Yes
A number of countries that have reopened schools in the past two months have reported no resulting increase in coronavirus infection rates, an encouraging sign for authorities around the world that are contemplating how and when to safely bring children back to the classroom. Authorities in many hard-hit countries such as Italy and the U.S. have so far resisted reopening schools for fear of triggering an increase in infections. In the U.S., schools have been drawing up plans to reopen in September, partly based on the experience of other countries. (Pancevski and Dandanell, 5/31)
