If you have not yet read it, I highly recommend this 2006 guidance document: Disease Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza. It reflects the best thinking at the time of how to manage a pandemic.
Authors include the great D.A. Henderson. Here is what they say about school closure:
Wow, imagine that!
A link to the full essay is here:
http://krhis.kdhe.state.ks.us/olrh/Notices.nsf/bf25ab0f47ba5dd785256499006b15a4/3fe04ade9ec3774086257219005b05ed/$FILE/Disease%20Mitigation%2010-06.pdf
Afterwards, check out what Vlad Kogan and I wrote on this in January
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/vinay-prasad/90658
One of my biggest frustrations with this is that we have put into place a system where schools are the safety net for children...they feed children, they look out for their welfare. We can't as a society set that up and then summarily take it away. I could never have imagined a situation where the political left would demand for children to be cut off from that safety net, and I think there's a lot to answer for.
We had a plan and threw it out the window. The baby and the bath water. The kids are still being thrown under the bus...and it’s nov 2021.