Keeping kids in school, safely

As Montana families are preparing to send children back to school, we are confronting the uncomfortable fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over, much as all of us dearly wish it were.

Late spring brought big reductions in COVID-19 case rates from the circulating alpha variant. But what we’re dealing with now, the delta variant, behaves differently. It is two to three times as contagious and may also cause more severe illness in young people. In states with low immunization rates, we are once again seeing overflowing hospitals. This means no one gets good medical care, whether it be for car...