The health of children and teachers should guide school reopening policies, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview on Tuesday.
“I think you have to put that in the context that an important issue is to make sure you do whatever you can to safeguard the safety and the health of the children, as well as the teachers, and that should guide your policy,” Fauci said.
Fauci said there are different kinds of approaches under discussion to get schools reopened.
“But in order to safeguard their health and their welfare, as well as teachers, to do some sort of modeling, different versions and I’ve heard different versions from different multiple different superintendents, about the school scheduling, about morning, afternoons, about alternate days, about more outdoor than indoor if you possibly can, protecting the vulnerable.”
Fauci discussed Covid-19 testing in schools and how it might be implemented.
“A more universal testing before you get in, and intermittent at different intervals, surveillance testing that clearly is being discussed at the level of universities and colleges.” Fauci said. “Whether or not that is even going to be discussed with regard to elementary and middle and other schools, I’m not sure.”
Fauci said it’s not true that the idea children don’t get as sick as adults or transmit the coronavirus like adults means there’s no danger in reopening school.
“In general, children who get infected — as we know from the statistics — clearly, for the most part, do very well and don’t get seriously ill … but there are exceptions to that. And I think we have to be realistic to realize that children who get infected, for the most part, don’t get serious illness — but some children do get seriously ill and some pass it on to the adults,” Fauci said.
