Gates Package — page 972

1 measures were more lot for people under age fifty.) And in the meantime, many schools will be able to stay open while using various prevention strategies, including masks, distancing, and better ventilation. One study found that reopening schools in Germany did not cause cases to go up, but reopening them in the U.S. did.8 The authors hypothesized that Germany's mitigation measures were more effective than America's. I want to add a caveat to the idea that long-term school closures shouldn't be necessary. That will be true if the next outbreak is one with a profile like COVID's--in particular, one that rarely makes kids severely ill. But we have to be careful not to get caught fighting the last war. If a future pathogen is markedly different from COVID--for instance, if its impact on children is a lot worse--then the risk/benefit calculus could change, and closing schools might be prudent. We'll need to stay flexible and, as always, follow the data. On the other hand, it is clear to me that locking down assisted living homes for older people was the right thing to do. It saved a lot of lives because the virus is so much deadlier for the elderly--and I say this knowing how deeply painful these lockdowns were for all the residents who were confined to their rooms, and to their loved ones. It was heartbreaking to hear stories about families who had to say goodbye to a dying parent or grandparent through a closed window or over the phone. My dad died of Alzheimer's disease in September 2020, and I feel very lucky that he was able to be at home, surrounded by family, in his last days. The human suffering caused by these separations is incalculable, literally--we can't put a number on the pain of not being able to say goodbye in person. But the policy saved so many lives that it would be worth adopting again if the circumstances called for it. What works in one place might not work in another.