For this parent and scientist, back to school planning is complicated by delta variant concerns

Kids go back to school next week in Seattle and other districts around the Puget Sound region. With the delta variant causing a surge of new Covid cases among children, many parents have questions about how to protect their kids in the classroom — especially those who are too young to be vaccinated.

Stephen Lim is one of those parents. He's also a professor of Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He told KUOW’s Kim Malcolm about a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Seattle Times.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Kim Malcolm: Your headline reads ‘We failed to protect our youngest kids from Covid-19. We are about to fail them again.’ Why do you say that?

Stephen Lim: I say that because, given what we know about the delta variant, I believe there’s a huge risk associated in the return to school. The delta variant is twice as infectious, and we're seeing that in the case and hospitalization numbers today.

That also means many of the standards on which the control measures are being implemented right now are based on evidence from the pre-delta period. One example is the three feet of physical distancing that the CDC recommends. That was based on data from the 2020-2021 school year — before the much more infectious delta variant was present.

So if the CDC is recommending three feet of distance between students, and that's what Seattle Public School says they're going to do, what would you rather see?

I would like to see physical distancing at a minimum of six feet. That would actually align with the requirements for teachers in terms of physical distancing.

We know the delta cases continue to rise here in our area. If it were up to you, what measures would you put in place in our schools this fall?

In addition to the mask mandates and the vaccine mandates that we've seen from Governor Inslee, that would be stricter physical distancing and smaller classroom sizes to facilitate that stricter physical distancing.

I think one of the key weak points is meal times. That's a big difference from when children were in school in the spring, when there were no meal times in school. Kids went home to eat lunch, for example. Meal times are when children are going to be unmasked, and therefore not protected by masks from transmission.

How do you want them to have lunch?

I think there are a couple of key points: Small groups phased in time, and outdoor meals. We know that transmission outdoors is far lower than transmission in indoor environments.

You have two children. They're too young to get vaccinated. Will you be sending them back to the classroom this fall?

We won't be sending them back. Our plan is, with a few other families at our local school, to homeschool them until they can be vaccinated. Then the plan is to send them back to in-person school. Obviously, we're in a very privileged position. Many other families don't have the option of homeschooling. That's why I'd very much like to see real remote learning options for those families that aren't willing to accept the risk of in-person school and want to keep their kids remote until they can be vaccinated.

There may be some parents listening to us right now saying, "Of course I want to keep my child safe. I just can't do it from home anymore. It's not working for us." What would you say to those families?

I would say that I understand them. At the same time, we do need to open schools in a way that can be done safely. I think this is also particularly important given that we’ll have, in a few months time, a very effective tool, vaccines available for children under 12.

For our family, the risk equation has actually just changed quite a bit. It's not a question now about what's the benefit of in-person school versus the risk of Covid, but what are the benefits of in-person school for those first few months until children under the age of 12 can be vaccinated?

According to Seattle Public School’s safety plan, not all of its school buildings have a safe, appropriate place to hold lunch outdoors. The district says it can implement a safe lunch plan by maximizing physical distancing, adding lunch periods to reduce the number of students, and organizing students so they won't directly face each other while eating.

The district has a remote option for some younger learners in a K-5 pilot this year. However, those spots have filled up, and there's a wait list.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.