NYT : C.D.C. Calls on Schools to Reopen, Downplaying Health Risks

[Celerity]

The agency’s statement followed earlier criticism from President Trump that its guidelines for reopening were too “tough.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/health/cdc-schools-coronavirus.html



WASHINGTON — The nation’s top public health agency issued a full-throated call to reopen schools in a statement that aligned with President Trump’s pressure on communities, listing numerous benefits for children of being in school and downplaying the potential health risks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the statement, along with new “resources and tools,” Thursday evening, two weeks after Mr. Trump criticized its earlier recommendations on school reopenings as “very tough and expensive,” ratcheting up what was already an anguished national debate over how soon students and teachers should return to classrooms.

“Reopening schools creates opportunity to invest in the education, well-being, and future of one of America’s greatest assets — our children — while taking every precaution to protect students, teachers, staff and all their families,” the agency’s new statement said.

Mr. Trump, sinking in the polls and pummeled with criticism over his handling of the pandemic, sees reopening the nation’s schools this fall as crucial to reinvigorating the economy and to his re-election. While many public health experts and pediatricians agree that returning children to classrooms is critically important, they warn that it has to be done cautiously, with a plan based on scientific evidence. Many, along with teachers’ unions, have accused the president of putting children and the adults who supervise them at school at risk by politicizing the subject.

The new package of C.D.C. materials began with a statement titled “The Importance of Reopening America’s Schools This Fall” that repeatedly described children as being at low risk for being infected by or transmitting the virus, even though the science on both aspects is far from settled.

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[tanyev]

1. Donny never runs out of ways to make a bad situation worse.

[RockRaven]

2. Expert advice discarded and replaced with politically motivated garbage. We cannot trust

anything the CDC says about coronavirus from this point on, not while Trump remains president.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. This is not a good thing. My niece sent her two kids to Summer school, and when two of the...

students at the school came down w/ the CV, she yanked them back out and everyone in SW Missouri are all freaking out.

Be careful people. Are your kids really safe? From my experience in my own family in SW Missouri, NO.