The facts are that COVID-19 is still out there actively infecting people As are many other viruses. Many a school has opened under the rationale of "we can't

The facts are that COVID-19 is still out there actively infecting people As are many other viruses. Many a school has opened under the rationale of "we can't just hide from it forever", only to go into shutdown again because of the inevitable outbreak that occurs when a bunch of kids are packed like sardines into a hallway or classroom environment. It's now well established that schools are not significant drivers of infections. Which is actually rather surprising; it's a reasonable hypothesis that lots of kids would get infected and then pass it to vulnerable family members. But the results from schools around the world show that that's not happening to any significant degree. It is far better to be overly cautious than not cautious enough in such a case, even if it comes at the expense of inconvenience. You can't make that general statement without quantifying the harms on both sides. Denying education and socialization to children, throwing millions of people out of work, and telling people they can't visit family or friends for an indefinite duration goes well beyond "inconvenience".