advertisement

studying teachers' immunity and stress amid covid

the covid-19 community task force will collect data to learn more about prevention strategies in daycares and schools, and also study the wellbeing of educators.

just how safe is the classroom for teachers?
there have been conflicting reports about the infection risks teachers face amid covid-19. getty

for the covid-19 immunity task force (citf), which was established by the government in april 2020 shortly after the pandemic began and with a two-year mandate, the focus continues to be about understanding the nature of immunity arising from the novel coronavirus that causes covid-19 and supporting vaccine surveillance.

comprised of volunteers, including leading canadian scientists and experts from universities and healthcare facilities across the country, that focus is currently on a very specific and significant demographic: teachers.
with classrooms having reopened for in-person learning as early as february 8 in ontario, and earlier in many other provinces, the question of just how safe a school environment is right now lingers.
to find out, the citf will be supporting three research projects — in ontario, québec and british columbia — that will estimate how many teachers and school personnel have been infected with sars-cov-2. approximately $2.9 million has been invested into these studies to help inform prevention strategies in neighbourhoods, schools and daycares. the hope is that the findings will also help with vaccine surveillance once they are provided to school staff, making for just one step in the citf’s plan.

advertisement

advertisement

“imagine your dining room table and you’ve put up this big jigsaw puzzle you’re trying to do,” says citf co-chair dr. catherine hankins. “and so this big survey that we’re doing is kind of like going for all the straight edges and getting the border of your puzzle worked out, then filling in all of these other spaces in order to get a better idea of what the picture is, and bringing it into sharper and sharper focus as these studies start to report their results.”
each study will ask teachers and other education workers for regular blood samples to establish how many have antibodies, which would indicate a previous covid-19 infection. participants will also complete a questionnaire to determine the risks they face and the protective measures they take at the individual, household, school and community levels. when a vaccine becomes available for them, these studies will be able to show how many teachers agree to be vaccinated, the rates of side effects experienced, and whether antibodies are detected in their blood after immunization at various points in time.

the sample size will be considerable with the ontario study , which is set to enrol up to 7,000 education workers. those enrolled will be observed for 12 months in order to note all possible factors associated with infection. the québec study, meanwhile, is building off an existing citf-funded study called encore , which has been focused on children in schools and daycares in four montreal neighbourhoods. they will now be incorporating teachers, while the b.c. study will be adding students into their pre-existing teacher study.

advertisement

advertisement

“these studies will also be looking at distress levels over time,” says hankins. “because as we all get more and more excited about vaccine access, our distress levels are starting to fall, and they’ll be able to have a look at that.”
in fact, mental health is a key part of this research endeavour, with all participants set to complete individual questionnaires to help assess the effects of the pandemic on mental and emotional states, along with noting their socio-demographics.
“teachers have been under a lot of stress,” says hankins. “when they’ve been doing face-to-face teaching, they’ve been anxious about getting exposed and all while they’re working hard to follow the guidelines. hats off to them.”
she notes that while the the studies include a serological component, the wellbeing analysis will allow the experiences of education workers to be documented thoroughly, collecting data that will show “their coping strategies, what factors have made them more resilient, and what factors have led to them feeling more burnt out. i think we’ll get a better feel for what they’ve really been living through.”

since last summer, there have been conflicting reports over just how at risk teachers are. in august, ontario’s chief medical officer of health dr. david williams announced that the province’s teachers would not be facing a greater risk of contracting the virus than other frontline workers while in class as long as they and their students adhere to safety precautions.

advertisement

advertisement

when the first vaccinations were rolled out in canada in december, the canadian teachers’ federation, a not-for-profit organization that represents over 300,000 elementary and secondary school teachers across the country, said in a december press release that those working in-class are at risk of exposure “every day.” the organization pushed for teachers to be given vaccine priority, but based on last week’s phase 2 roll-out , ontario teachers will likely be waiting until june for vaccinations, as priority continues to be for older age groups, those with high-risk chronic conditions and those in at-risk areas.


 

in hankins’ opinion, “teachers are not less at risk than the average working person. we can say that people who have been working from home may not be as at risk as a paramedic who’s dealing with sick people in the close quarters of an ambulance, but then how do the paramedics compare to grocery store workers, cashiers, and people working in meatpacking plants that have had poor ventilation? because if you look at where the outbreaks are occurring, they happen in congregate settings, like long-term care facilities and prisons. about a third of community transmission is linked back to work sites, and schools are reflecting that pattern, too.”

advertisement

advertisement

it’s that kind of insight the citf is hoping to find more of. next on its radar? long-term care facilities, health-care workers, paramedics and even dentists. the organization also already has multiple ongoing studies on correctional institutions, which are looking at both inmates and prison staff.
sadaf ahsan is a toronto-based culture writer, editor and stereotypical middle child. she can be reached here.
don’t miss the latest on covid-19, reopening and life. subscribe to healthing’s daily newsletter covid life.

comments

postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. we ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. we have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. visit our community guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.