So, per your research, this gives us at least six school districts in Illinois I can add to my list. As I suspected, my "school closing" list was NOT comprehensive. Many thanks for letting me know about these closings. I'll go back and edit my stories and add these Illinois examples.
So you don’t get caught in any accusations of bias... when I searched for this, results were more prevalent for school closings due to illness in 2018, so hard to say if 2020 was unusual.
Can you share your sources and findings? How many school systems in how many states? I linked to two articles from CNN and the WSJ that said schools in 11 and 12 states closed. I also wrote that the 2017-2018 flu season produced a "similar" number of school closings. I think most of those school closings that flu season were in a few weeks (around mid-January 2018) and didn't occur over four months like 2019-2020.
I also note that the 2017-2018 flu season is said to be one of the worst in four decades - so this would be the highest possible baseline comparison flu season.
You'd really need to find the average number of school closings for a given flu season and then compare 2019-2020 to that number. Maybe go back 10 years. Besides the flu seasons of 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 (the prior flu season) I didn't find much evidence of numerous school closings.
In my state, I don't remember as many school closings (or schools that had numerous absences but didn't close) in previous flu seasons. (If memory serves, think two school systems closed in Alabama in January 2018, but five closed in Alabama in January 2019).
Lastly, while I've identified 15 states where schools closed (at least 105 schools or school districts), I also strongly suspect I didn't find EVERY school closing story in the country. I think there were more than just 15 states where schools closed, perhaps many more states. And, as I noted, the worst ILI rates might have been in late December 2019/early January 2020 - and this is when schools would have been closed for the holidays.
I'd be exaggerating to call it research :) I just noticed Illinois was not listed, so I googled "illinois school closes due to flu" and then looked for appropriately dated news articles. Just anecdotally observed that 2018 seemed to have more articles. I do have an idea, however, to investigate further. Will let you know if it is fruitful.
That's about the only type of research I did - Google searches for "school closings" because of flu in X state and X month. It was a little more sophisticated or involved than this - I found school closings that readers sent me or from links inside of links.
There's no doubt there were a lot of school closings in January 2018. Just remember that's supposed to be the worst flu season in four decades. So even if it turns out that more schools closed that flu season, the baseline comparison would be skewed. It would be like saying Hurricane Opal wasn't bad ... because it wasn't as bad as Hurricane Camille.
I still think more schools closed in 2019-2020 than in January 2018 ... and that flu season was only notable for about four or five weeks. The 2019-2020 was prolonged. It was many waves of outbreaks and school closings.
I'll give you an example, I found no school closings in MISS or Georgia, which are Alabama's neighbors. I found plenty in Alabama's neighbor of Tennessee. Why no school closings in MISS or GA? I know from ILI reports that the ILI percentages in those states were through the roof at different points of that flu season.
So I think there must have been some school closings in those states. I just never learned about them.
Illinois: https://thehill.com/homenews/news/478735-flu-closes-entire-illinois-school-district/
Another example: https://www.wsiltv.com/news/education/more-southern-illinois-schools-closed-friday-due-to-illness/article_303186a8-6cde-5ef9-b378-2d8180c042f4.html
So, per your research, this gives us at least six school districts in Illinois I can add to my list. As I suspected, my "school closing" list was NOT comprehensive. Many thanks for letting me know about these closings. I'll go back and edit my stories and add these Illinois examples.
So you don’t get caught in any accusations of bias... when I searched for this, results were more prevalent for school closings due to illness in 2018, so hard to say if 2020 was unusual.
Can you share your sources and findings? How many school systems in how many states? I linked to two articles from CNN and the WSJ that said schools in 11 and 12 states closed. I also wrote that the 2017-2018 flu season produced a "similar" number of school closings. I think most of those school closings that flu season were in a few weeks (around mid-January 2018) and didn't occur over four months like 2019-2020.
I also note that the 2017-2018 flu season is said to be one of the worst in four decades - so this would be the highest possible baseline comparison flu season.
You'd really need to find the average number of school closings for a given flu season and then compare 2019-2020 to that number. Maybe go back 10 years. Besides the flu seasons of 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 (the prior flu season) I didn't find much evidence of numerous school closings.
In my state, I don't remember as many school closings (or schools that had numerous absences but didn't close) in previous flu seasons. (If memory serves, think two school systems closed in Alabama in January 2018, but five closed in Alabama in January 2019).
Lastly, while I've identified 15 states where schools closed (at least 105 schools or school districts), I also strongly suspect I didn't find EVERY school closing story in the country. I think there were more than just 15 states where schools closed, perhaps many more states. And, as I noted, the worst ILI rates might have been in late December 2019/early January 2020 - and this is when schools would have been closed for the holidays.
Thanks for your research.
I'd be exaggerating to call it research :) I just noticed Illinois was not listed, so I googled "illinois school closes due to flu" and then looked for appropriately dated news articles. Just anecdotally observed that 2018 seemed to have more articles. I do have an idea, however, to investigate further. Will let you know if it is fruitful.
That's about the only type of research I did - Google searches for "school closings" because of flu in X state and X month. It was a little more sophisticated or involved than this - I found school closings that readers sent me or from links inside of links.
There's no doubt there were a lot of school closings in January 2018. Just remember that's supposed to be the worst flu season in four decades. So even if it turns out that more schools closed that flu season, the baseline comparison would be skewed. It would be like saying Hurricane Opal wasn't bad ... because it wasn't as bad as Hurricane Camille.
I still think more schools closed in 2019-2020 than in January 2018 ... and that flu season was only notable for about four or five weeks. The 2019-2020 was prolonged. It was many waves of outbreaks and school closings.
I'll give you an example, I found no school closings in MISS or Georgia, which are Alabama's neighbors. I found plenty in Alabama's neighbor of Tennessee. Why no school closings in MISS or GA? I know from ILI reports that the ILI percentages in those states were through the roof at different points of that flu season.
So I think there must have been some school closings in those states. I just never learned about them.
Thanks for any new data you might find!
Thanks! I'll add it to my list - which is now "at least 15 states." This closing also happened in earlier January.