Jessica Justman, MD, ICAP’s senior technical director, is quoted in a July 15 Insider Magazine article on the safety of ‘backyard summer camps’ popping up as an alternative to regular summer camps that may be closed or at reduced capacity due to COVID-19:

The safety of each camp will ultimately “depend on who attends,” Jessica Justman, an epidemiologist and associate professor of medicine at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told Insider in an email.

 

“If the children are all from one family or are already clustering together in one ‘bubble,’ then the main safety issue to consider will be the organizers/counselors’ health as they will be exposed to the children,” Justman said. “If the children come from different families and do not normally spend time together, then the safety concerns will expand in proportion to the size of the new ‘pod.'”

 

Since each camper will go back home at the end of the day, they risk giving the virus to members of their families, Justman said.

Read the full article on the Insider Magazine website

Read the latest ICAP updates on COVID-19 here