School and preparedness officials' perspectives on social distancing practices to reduce influenza transmission during a pandemic: Considerations to guide future work

Abstract

The objective of this qualitative study was to explore the perspectives of school and preparedness officials on the feasibility of implementing a range of social distancing practices to reduce influenza transmission during a pandemic. In the summer of 2017, we conducted 36 focus groups by teleconference and webinar lasting 90 min with school and preparedness stakeholders from across the United States. We identified and characterized 11 themes arising from the focus group protocol's domains as well as unanticipated emergent themes. These themes were: the need for effective stakeholder communication, the importance of partnering for buy-in, the role of social distancing in heightening anxiety, ensuring student safety, how practices work in combination, challenges with enforcement, lack of funding for school nurses, differing views about schools' role in protecting public health, the need for education and community engagement to ensure consistent implementation, the need for collaborative decision-making, and tension between standardizing public health guidance and adapting to local contexts. Addressing several crosscutting considerations can increase the likelihood that social distancing practices will be feasible and acceptable to school stakeholders.

The 2019–2020 novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) pandemic: A joint american college of academic international medicine-world academic council of emergency medicine multidisciplinary COVID-19 working group consensus paper

“…[ 15 16 17 ] Despite global efforts to slow the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 and “flatten the curve” [ Figure 1 ], including population-level “social distancing” (physical separation of people so as not to contract the illness) and drastic travel restriction/quarantine measures, the disease relentlessly continued to expand its reach. [ 18 19 20 21 22 ] As of the writing of this Position Statement, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID-19 a pandemic[ 23 24 ] and the United States (US) has declared a National Emergency. [ 25 26 ] With more than 4.3 million people with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection and more than 290,000 deaths, the malady continues to spread around the globe.…”

Perceptions towards E-learning in Times of COVID-19 Lockdown Phase in the Tertiary Education

“…Germann et al 2019and Faherty et al (2019) addressed the possibility of closing schools during the pandemic influenza as well as rearranging classes, restricting the community works movement of students in the classroom and creating incentives for distance learning for days off. Ash (2014) suggested that distance learning can be facilitated during the Flu Crisis by technology such as the internet, mobile, radio, television, or mobile messaging, or email.…”

“Social distancing: barriers to its implementation and how they can be overcome – a rapid systematic review and synthesis of qualitative studies”

“…Data from the studies included in this review indicate that it is important to address stigmatisation and the psychological burden of measures like quarantine. (20,22,25,(30)(31)(32)38,40) Building trust in government and authorities as well as promoting confidence in the implemented measures are further opportunities for improvement (21,23,24,26,30,33,39,43,45). Addressing solidarity, social responsibility and community collaboration promotes adherence and is a critical element of the response (21)(22)(23)26,27,30,31,33,39).…”

“…Ultimately, the most central theme identified across studies is the critical importance of good communication (23,25,26,28,29,(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)44,45 (34)(35)(36)(37), and information should be context specific and relevant to people's lives. Further important aspects identified were transparency, good timing, clarity and uniformity (18,23,25,(34)(35)(36)(37).…”