They were talking about flu on the news yesterday (shocking) and some pundit or another was complaining that the NYC public schools should really be closed to contain the flu.

I recall reading somewhere that on days that the public schools are closed without warning (snow days, etc.) the economic output of the cty falls by some rediculously high number, like 30% (no, I do not have a source, so don't quote the number, but it is high). All the people who normally have elementary school age kids at school have to scramble for childcare, and many wind up not being able to go to work.

In a pandemic situation, this is the best case scenario. More likely is that after a day or two people are no longer able to miss work, and all the neighborhood kids get left with the one stay-at-home parent on the block, which completely defeats the purpose of closing the schools in the first place.

I'm not saying in won't, or shouldn't happen, but it's not a decision that will be taken lightly. I think things will have to get much worse before the school system here gets (or even should get) shut down.