During a Buck Institute webinar broadcast on July 14, the director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Robert Redfield promoted the general reopening of schools, highlighting the low risk of coronavirus for children without pre-existing conditions and the unfortunate increase in suicides and drug overdoses, which Redfield said are “much larger” in number than COVID-related deaths in youth.
“It is not a risk of school openings versus public health. It’s public health versus public health, “said Redfield.
“I’m from the point of view, and I consider that equation as an individual who has 11 grandchildren that the greatest risk is actually for the nation to keep these schools closed,” he continued.
Redfield said that more than 7 million children receive mental health services from their school, “many people get food and nutrition in schools,” adding that schools are vital “in terms of mandatory reporting of sexual and child abuse.”
“Obviously, socialization is important,” he said. “And, obviously, for some children, I think that in reality for most children, their learning in a face-to-face school is the most effective method of teaching.”
The reopening, Redfield stressed, “must be done safely, and must be done with the trust of teachers. It must be done with the trust of parents. And I think every school district will start struggling with this.”
Speaking of the risks of the Chinese-originated coronavirus to children, Redfield said the data shows that the flu is five to 10 times more deadly, adding that the odds of a child dying from a COVID-related death is “a in a million. “
“I think it is important to try to be objective as we go about this,” said the CDC director. “When we look at the mortality of this particular COVID virus right now, in the first 218,000 people we observed from February to July, there were 52 people under the age of 18. And if I recall, approximately 35 were actually schoolchildren. Some of them were younger than school age. We are looking critically at those people. And, you know, clearly, there is an increase in comorbidities related to significant medical conditions … “
“But I think that’s important because what that actually means is the risk per 100,000, so far, you know, at the outbreak six months later, it’s actually that we’re seeing around .1 per 100,000 So another way to say that is one in a million, “Redfield said, referring to the death rate among children.
“Now, I’m not trying to belittle that, I’m just trying to make sure we see it proportionally,” he said. “Because if you do the same for flu deaths in school-age children in the last five years, they’re five to 10 times higher.”
“So I want people to understand risk adequately when making that decision. And obviously the flu, we also benefit from having a therapy and a vaccine. So I don’t want people to overestimate the risk of serious illness for people of school age, “Redfield advised.
“That said, there is a real risk for vulnerable people who are teachers and who may have comorbidities,” he added. “And, obviously, there are some students who have comorbidity.”
According to CDC.gov, “The risk of complications for healthy children is greater for influenza compared to COVID-19. However, infants and children with underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for influenza and COVID-19.”
The CDC director then discussed the closing social compensation, particularly for our youth.
“But there has been another cost that we have seen, particularly in high schools,” he said. “We are unfortunately seeing much higher suicides now than COVID deaths. We are seeing much higher deaths from drug overdoses that are above the excess we had as a history than deaths from COVID. “
“So that’s why I keep coming back for the general social being of people,” he continued, “it’s all working together and discovering how we can find common ground to open these schools in a way that people feel comfortable and safe. And if there is a need for investment and resources, just as there is a need for some of the disadvantaged children who are likely to be better served if they have certain comorbidities for home schooling, they need access to have the computer and the computer. internet to do that. “
“The goal is to get all of these children back to education,” concluded Redfield. “I’d like to see the goal be face-to-face education, five days a week, like when we got there, so we’re there for those kids who don’t have significant underlying comorbidity to prevent it. And hopefully states and the federal government will work together to see that the resources for these schools to be fully operational are applied. ”
The complete webinar can be viewed here.
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