Teachers were not at any greater risk of hospitalisation with Covid-19 or severe Covid-19 at any time during the 2020-21 academic year than similar working-age adults, a study from the British Medical Journal suggests.
In a study based on Scottish data comparing teachers and their household members with healthcare workers and adults of working age in the general population, from March 2020 to July 2021, it was found that teachers were at no greater risk of Covid hospital admission compared with the general population.
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“When schools were largely closed, teachers showed a lower risk of being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 than other adults of working age, and when schools were fully open, the risk in both groups was similar,” it says.
“Prompt uptake of vaccination in teachers might have contributed to their protection during a period when the Delta variant was common,” it adds.
Covid and schools: Teachers ‘not at more risk of severe illness’
Most teachers in the study - carried out jointly by Public Health Scotland and the University of Glasgow - were young (with a mean age of 42), and 80 per cent were women, while 84 per cent had no comorbidities, meaning they did not have multiple health conditions.
The report authors say participants were therefore at low absolute risk of severe Covid-19 or hospital admission with Covid-19, adding, “Our observations are likely to be of interest to teachers, their household members, policymakers and the wider population.”
During the study period, the overall risk of hospital admission with Covid-19 remained lower than 1 per cent for teachers, healthcare workers and adults of working age in the general population.
And after adjusting for other factors, it was found that in the first period of school closure during spring/summer 2020, the risk of hospital admission with Covid-19 was around 50 per cent lower for teachers and their household members than in the general population, whereas it was almost four times higher in patient-facing healthcare workers, and nearly twice as high for their household members.
During the later period of school closure in winter 2020-21, teachers and their household members were again at 50 per cent lower risk of hospital admission than the general population.
But in the first period of full school opening in autumn 2020, the risk of hospital admission in teachers increased by around 2.4-fold.
“This increase suggests that the risk to teachers during the autumn 2020 term was similar to that in the general population,” the study says.
In the summer term of 2021, when schools were also open and vaccination of the Scottish population was underway, a smaller increase of around 1.7-fold was seen.
“In the summer term of 2021, when schools were also open and vaccination of the Scottish population was underway, a smaller increase of around 1.7-fold was seen,” the report says, adding that “no accompanying increase in the relative risk of severe Covid-19 was observed during either period”.
The BMJ points out that the study is observational, “so can’t establish cause”, and the researchers point to some limitations, such as an inability to link a small number of teachers to healthcare records and a lack of detailed information on factors such as class size and control measures within individual schools.
The report authors say the findings “should reassure those who are engaged in face-to-face teaching”.
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said: “It is very good news and very reassuring that teachers have been found not to be at greater risk of hospitalisation because of Covid.”
She highlighted that the study could not determine why this was the case, but had found that it could be because teaching is generally a female-dominated profession for younger people and because of swift vaccination take-up by teachers.
She added: “Nothing in this study, however, negates the importance of vigilance in suppressing Covid transmission in schools.”
A spike in Covid infection in school-age children will lead to more children and staff missing school and “run huge risks of viral transmission into the community where many adults do not share teachers’ general youth or good health”, she warned.
She added: “We do remain concerned about our more vulnerable members - for example, those who are registered as clinically extremely vulnerable or third-trimester pregnant women. We must ensure greater protection for the many thousands in these categories.
“The NEU calls on school and college leaders to give every reasonable dispensation to ensure those staff can continue to work safely. This will certainly help keep down the number of school staff in hospital.”
