Were school Covid closures worth it? Not really, new UW study finds

Were school Covid closures worth it? Not really, new UW study finds Sami West October 20, 2025 / 11:54 am

Covid-era school closures caused the U.S. significant economic and educational loss while being less effective than other transmission interventions, according to new research.

The University of Washington and Oxford University study found that closing schools created $2 trillion in future economic losses — a conservative estimate — while reducing Covid spread by just 8%.

Mask mandates, on the other hand, lessened transmission by nearly 20% and cost relatively little, researchers concluded.

“Hindsight is 20/20, right?” said Adrian Raftery, a professor emeritus of statistics and sociology at UW and a co-author of the study. “This study’s an opportunity to look back and see