  Situations in which no scientific consensus has been reached due to either
insufficient, inconclusive or contradicting findings place strain on
governments and public organizations which are forced to take action under
circumstances of uncertainty. In this chapter, we focus on the case of
COVID-19, its effects on children and the public debate around the reopening of
schools. The aim is to better understand the relationship between policy
interventions in the face of an uncertain and rapidly changing knowledge
landscape and the subsequent use of scientific information in public debates
related to the policy interventions. Our approach is to combine scientific
information from journal articles and preprints with their appearance in the
popular media, including social media. First, we provide a picture of the
different scientific areas and approaches, by which the effects of COVID-19 on
children are being studied. Second, we identify news media and social media
attention around the COVID-19 scientific output related to children and
schools. We focus on policies and media responses in three countries: Spain,
South Africa and the Netherlands. These countries have followed very different
policy actions with regard to the reopening of schools and represent very
different policy approaches to the same problem. We analyse the activity in
(social) media around the debate between COVID-19, children and school closures
by focusing on the use of references to scientific information in the debate.
Finally, we analyse the dominant topics that emerge in the news outlets and the
online debates. We draw attention to illustrative cases of miscommunication
related to scientific output and conclude the chapter by discussing how
information from scientific publication, the media and policy actions shape the
public discussion in the context of a global health pandemic.
