Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Oct 5:1:RRN1051.
doi: 10.1371/currents.rrn1051.

Economic cost and health care workforce effects of school closures in the U.S

Howard Lempel  1 , Joshua M Epstein, Ross A Hammond
Affiliations

Economic cost and health care workforce effects of school closures in the U.S

Howard Lempel et al. PLoS Curr. .

Abstract

School closure is an important component of U.S. pandemic flu mitigation strategy, but has important costs. We give estimates of both the direct economic and health care impacts for school closure durations of 2, 4, 6, and 12 weeks under a range of assumptions. We find that closing all schools in the U.S. for four weeks could cost between $10 and $47 billion dollars (0.1-0.3% of GDP) and lead to a reduction of 6% to 19% in key health care personnel.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Centers for Disease Control: Interim Pre-Pandemic planning Guidance: Community Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Mitigation in the United States; 2007. [http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/community/mitigation.html]
    1. Cauchemez S, Ferguson, NM, Wachtel C, Tegnell A, Saour G, Duncan B, Nicoll A: Closure of Schools During an Influenza Pandemic. Lancet Infect Dis 2009, 8: 473-481. - PMC - PubMed
    1. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology: Report to the President on U.S. Preparations for 2009 – H1N1 Influenza; 2009. [http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/PCAST_H1N1_Report.pdf]
    1. Sadique MZ, Adams EJ, and Edmunds WJ: Estimating the Costs of School Closure for Mitigating an Influenza Pandemic. BMC Public Health 2008, 8:135. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sander B, Nizam A, Garrison LP, Postma MJ, Halloran ME, Longini IM: Economic Evaluation of Influenza Pandemic Mitigation Strategies in the United States Using a Stochastic Microsimulation Transmission Model. Value in Health 2009, 12: 226-233. - PMC - PubMed