Swine flu: to close schools or not?

In today’s Daily News, Juan Gonzalez takes a good look at the report of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) on the swine flu which has some very worrisome warnings and advice that the Bloomberg administration seems intent on ignoring.

Last spring, Mayor Bloomberg insisted on more than one occasion that shutting schools "has absolutely nothing to do with the spread of the disease." The city closed only about 50 schools - and usually only in response to the demands of angry parents. …

The panel urges that our leaders learn from the experiences of other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Mexico and Japan, which have used more aggressive policies on school closings so far. ….The report says that "there is significant evidence, as well as logic, to support the idea that school closure ... can reduce virus transmission," while it also notes that local communities will have to weigh the "tradeoffs between the medical benefit gained and social disruption caused by school or institutional closure."

To see the PCAST report , click here (pdf).