--- title: What Summer Camp COVID-19 Outbreaks Say About Schools description: Summer camps across the U.S. are dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks. What happens when school starts? canonical: https://time.com/6083367/summer-camp-covid-schools/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-07-26T12:00:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T00:58:44.000Z article:section: Health og:title: Summer Camps Across the U.S. Are Dealing With COVID-19 Outbreaks. So What Happens When School Starts? og:description: 'It's not surprising that we see a lot of spread' og:url: https://time.com/6083367/summer-camp-covid-schools/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e33d38a1c6bfd04/698a1b4a096a9485276ab7a8/summer-camp-covid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Summer Camp Lake with Life Jackets Hanging on Fence og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Summer Camps Across the U.S. Are Dealing With COVID-19 Outbreaks. So What Happens When School Starts? twitter:description: 'It's not surprising that we see a lot of spread' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e33d38a1c6bfd04/698a1b4a096a9485276ab7a8/summer-camp-covid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Summer Camps Across the U.S. Are Dealing With COVID-19 Outbreaks. So What Happens When School Starts? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=255ecc5a-1fdd-4619-a7d2-9a4bcc6617d8&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Vaccinating Younger Children Is The Next Step in the Battle Against Covid-19 [Watch (HLS stream): Vaccinating Younger Children Is The Next Step in the Battle Against Covid-19](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/OfRzsXdw.m3u8) (2:41)  _Published 2021-06-10. 'It's not surprising that we see a lot of spread'_  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Updated: Dec 12, 2023 12:58 AM UTCPublished: Jul 26, 2021 12:00 PM UTC  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Updated: Dec 12, 2023 12:58 AM UTCPublished: Jul 26, 2021 12:00 PM UTC Clear Creek Community Church took COVID-19 seriously from the beginning. The interdenominational church, which has five locations in and around Texas’ Galveston County, suspended in-person services through most of spring 2020, and required attendees to wear masks until this past May. When the church announced a five-day summer ministry camp for kids in grades 6 to 12 for this June, it also shared a[ set of protocols](https://www.clearcreek.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Guest-Health-Guide.pdf) the camp would enforce to curb the spread of the virus: More hand-washing stations were to be installed. Spray hand sanitizers would be given to every group. Attendees would be encouraged to keep six feet apart from each other, and mask up when that wouldn’t be possible. But those steps didn’t stop COVID-19\. As of July 21, 157 cases in Galveston County have been tied to an outbreak at the camp, including, as of July 16, about 30 among campers’ family members who were infected after the kids returned home. The majority of these cases are linked to the more transmissible Delta variant, according to Dr. Philip Keiser, the Galveston County local health authority. Similar outbreaks among this summer’s campers have been reported in [Missouri](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/07/10/889718877/at-least-82-coronavirus-cases-linked-to-missouri-sleepaway-camp), [Ohio](https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2021/07/19/ohio-recommends-masks-summer-camp-covid-19) and [New York](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/nyregion/covid-outbreak-camp-pontiac-ny.html). Keiser says that previous outbreaks among kids haven’t seemed to directly fuel surges among other groups, but they can be a sign of what’s happening in the broader community—before summer recess began, he came to view schoolkids as “canaries in the coal mine.” “If I saw schoolkid numbers going up, I knew a few days later that there would be a lot higher rates among the general population,” he says. It’s no coincidence, he adds, that the number of Galveston County’s new daily infections has risen in recent days; as of July 22, Galveston’s 7-day rolling average of daily new cases was 53.6, a 28% increase over two weeks. These and similar camp-driven outbreaks across the country has some public health experts, including Keiser, worrying that it’s a sign of things to come when the school year starts this fall. The pandemic is [picking up steam](https://time.com/5800901/coronavirus-map/) in the U.S again, fueled by the spread of the Delta variant and the relaxation of masking and social distancing ordinances. Children can transmit the virus to older, more vulnerable people, which may be more dangerous given the spread of Delta. Additionally, while children remain far less likely to get severely ill from COVID-19 or to show symptoms at all, those under 12 are [still ineligible](https://time.com/5949859/pfizer-vaccine-children-under-12/) for vaccination, [leaving them vulnerable](https://time.com/5946846/unvaccinated-kids-covid-19/)—and kids do get sick and sometimes die from the disease, if rarely so. Even kids who are eligible for the shots are mostly [unvaccinated](https://time.com/6082966/vaxteen-covid-19/); just 35.6% of those 12-15 and 47.1% of those 16-17 across the U.S. have received at least one dose as of July 14, compared to 68.6% of those over 18, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [data](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/?fbclid=IwAR3OU%5FAa2T8jd54u7G7Ygn1yTmDTboLt8YtcVlyWGy%5FIS6AdBpwQG-ijKhU#vaccinations). Yet for now, schools across the country are largely set to reopen as normal this August and September. In [guidance](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/health/cdc-schools-reopening-guidelines.html) issued July 9, the CDC, citing the [imperative](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html) for getting kids back in the classroom, said schools should reopen even if they can’t follow all of the agency’s risk-mitigation advice, though it urged unvaccinated students and teachers to mask up. Disruptions to in-person schooling during the pandemic have had dire consequences for many students, and have fueled a drive to get them back in classrooms; studies have [documented](https://time.com/5918769/coronavirus-schools-learning-loss/) learning loss, especially among students of color, and a loss of access to social services like [hot meals](https://time.com/5810017/coronavirus-school-closings-education-unesco/) that keep many kids from going hungry. U.S. Public Health Service Captain Erin Sauber-Schatz, who led the task force that wrote the CDC’s [camp](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/summer-camps.html) and [school ](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html)guidance, says the key to containing the spread of COVID-19 in school settings is layering on different prevention strategies like masking, distancing and testing, actually enforcing them, and not removing every safety strategy at once. “We really are at a point where we’re confident that we know that prevention strategies—when layered and used with fidelity—that they work,” Sauber-Schatz says. However, many schools may find it difficult or impossible to implement any or all of that advice. Moreover, some states, including Texas, are actively ignoring that advice—last month, Texas governor Greg Abbott barred public schools from requiring students to wear masks. With the more transmissible Delta variant on the rise and leaders like Abbott rejecting CDC guidance, some public health experts believe school-related spikes are inevitable come fall. “I think we’re gonna see a wave of outbreaks within schools,” says Dr. Michael Chang, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas. “And then we’re going to have to have a discussion about what to do next.” Although the Galveston County camp outbreak is still under investigation, Keiser says that interviews with people who were present at the camp, as well as material on the camp’s website, revealed that campers were not required to be tested, social distancing was not strictly enforced and few kids wore masks (“Some of the mothers were rather perturbed about that once they found out,” Keiser said). Clear Creek Community Church did not respond to a request for comment. Tejas Camp and Retreat, the organization that runs the camp facility, wrote to TIME, “Like many camps in Texas, we are adhering to the state guidelines and working alongside our church partners to minimize the risk of any illness in the camp environment. Tejas has also been in contact with local officials and the local emergency management office, but no action has been required. Tejas continues to monitor its staff’s health and will continue to employ testing and safety procedures consistent with those set forth by the state and CDC recommendations.” Another likely problem, says Keiser, was the low vaccination rate among Galveston County children. While more than half of all Galveston County residents over 12 are fully vaccinated, Keiser says that only about a quarter of children 12 to 18 are vaccinated. Although Keiser says it’s unclear how many kids at the camp were vaccinated, the outbreak was probably a result of “a partially vaccinated group of people all getting together and everyone acting … like they were all vaccinated,” he says. ” “And with that, it’s not surprising that we see a lot of spread.” The Texas camp outbreak could have been much worse. Galveston County Health District has yet to report anyone being hospitalized in connection to the camp outbreak, which may be further evidence that the coronavirus is not as dangerous for the young, and that the vaccine may be protecting some people from severe illness. However, Yvonne Maldonado, a professor of epidemiology, population health and pediatrics at Stanford University, warns that COVID-19 can still have terrible consequences for children, especially as a growing number are infected. “Right now, COVID is the tenth most common cause of death in children under 18,” Maldonado says. “The reason I bring it up is, people think the number of deaths is small, relative to \[adults\]. But children generally aren’t supposed to be dying. They’re healthier.” This means that parents may need to do a different kind of back-to-school preparation this year. Sauber-Schatz says that if COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in a given community, parents there should be more vigilant during the final weeks of summer to prevent their kids from bringing the virus into schools. “They really need to be careful in what they’re doing, where they’re going, in the few weeks before school starts, just to make sure that they’re preventing any COVID-19 cases from coming into the school environment right off the bat,” she says. “We really want children to get back into the classroom.” ## Transcript When COVID-19 began its devastating march of infection in 2020. There was one glimmer of hope amid the darkness. Young children did not seem to be getting infected as often as adults. And when they did, they didn't seem to get as sick or require hospital care. Older people seem to be the most vulnerable, so when vaccine makers were ready to test their shots, they started with the elderly first. When the first studies at the end of December 2020 were  reassuringly positive, showing that vaccines from Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna were more than 90% efficacious, those companies immediately turn their attention to children. When it comes to new drugs or vaccines, scientists often start with adults first,  to make sure that the experimental therapies are safe. Young children's immune systems are still developing, so testing unproven treatments in them can potentially lead to long term harm. But once the COVID-19 vaccines were shown to be safe and effective in adults, researchers were more confident in testing them in children. And that confidence was justified. In March 2021, Pfizer and BioNTech reported that among teens aged 12 to 15, who received the vaccine, none reported symptoms of COVID-19. So in May 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration extended the authorization for Pfizer BioNTech's vaccine to include not just adults, but teens as well. That same month, Moderna reported similarly positive results in its trial among teenagers. Moderna has requested the FDA to allow 12 to 15 year olds to also get vaccinated with the Moderna shot. Both companies are also testing their vaccines in even younger children down to babies as young as six months old. For these toddlers and babies, the companies are testing lower doses of their vaccines, since younger children's immune systems are often quicker to respond. Vaccinating younger and younger children will be important in the fall when schools reopen. Children who are immunized will be safer in classrooms and be less likely to get infected or spread the virus to others. Vaccinating children will also mean that the virus will have fewer and fewer people to infect. 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