Credits

Even though many national organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Education Association (NEA), and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) support the reopening of schools for the many social and psychological benefits of in-person learning, these benefits must be balanced with the threat posed by COVID-19 and schools should not be forced, under any conditions, to reopen in an unsafe manner. The model of all in-person learning will probably comprise a minority of school districts. The articles focusing on Back to School include: * "Safe Return to School" by Hallas and colleagues, which provide detailed guidance on different areas where protocols need to be developed and in place to ensure that the in-person learning environment is as safe as possible. * The Pediatric Pharmacology article "Guidelines for the best hand sanitizers" dovetails nicely with the Safe Return to School articles as hand hygiene is critically important in any in-person learning protocol.

COVID-19: It's not the same-old same old!

Studies have shown that up-to-date vaccine status for the recommended childhood vaccines has significantly decreased since the start of the pandemic, with less than 50% of infants and children in many areas of the United States being reported as current on their vaccines. The emergence of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) has demonstrated that COVID-19 infection in some children can be serious and life threaten-, ing, and that has added a sense of urgency in the I diagnosis and treatment of these patients.