Pandemic: US School Closures Were Not Cost-Effective

A study led by the University of Oxford found that closing schools in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic had a huge long-term economic cost.

According to ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ, the research, published in the journal "BMC Global and Public Health", analyzed eleven different non-pharmaceutical interventions implemented across the US in 2020.

While school closures prevented approximately 77,200 deaths and reduced transmission rates by 8.2%, they created $2 trillion in future economic losses due to disrupted education. Students lost over 0.35 school years of learning.

In contrast, mandatory masks reduced transmission by 19%, and testing and contact tracing also proved cost-effective.

Researchers note that an optimal combination of interventions could have reduced the overall impact of the pandemic in the US from $4.6 trillion to $1.9 trillion, while saving over 100,000 additional lives.

Rapid test development, contact tracing, mandatory masks, and social distancing, combined with targeted facility closures, could control similar future pandemic outbreaks without huge educational costs.