//I’m an epidemiologist and a dad. Here’s why I think schools should reopen.

I’m an epidemiologist and a dad. Here’s why I think schools should reopen.

Gov. Mifflin High School in Shillington, Pennsylvania, on May 1, 2020. | Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images

Six questions about the safety of kids, teachers, and families, answered.

Covid-19 is upending our lives and forcing us to make complex decisions with little information and conflicting guidance from authorities. Summer, typically the season of staying up late and popsicles in the park, offers no escape. Many of us are already turning to the fall, and the fate of schools.

What will we do with our kids? Can we really send them back to school? If we keep them at home, will they forget how to read? If we send them to school, what might be the consequence? We are living a nightmare, but this is where we are. The choices are high-stakes and plagued by uncertainty. Even thinking about them makes me sweat.