Centers for Director Robert Redfield strongly advocates for the reopening of U.S. schools Friday, even as colleges and universities around the country are forced to close their doors too early for the fall session, to a rise in COVID-19 infections to contain.
Amid an agonizing national debate over whether and how to reopen K-12 educational institutions for students, two major U.S. colleges – the University of North Carolina and Notre Dame – were forced to backtrack on plans to re-personalize classes as the fall semester begins.
Redfield highlighted distinctions between what happened in colleges and the polarizing debate over K-12 education, but widely supported by personal learning.
“For our nation, it is important that our institutes for higher education are opened. We will not have to take an educational break as a nation for a few years. But it has to be done safely and it has to be done sensibly, ”he said.
“It has to be done with an understanding that covide cases will happen in K-12, and that they will happen in universities,” Redfield added.
“While we diagnose these issues in schools, K-12. in particular, these cases are not purchased at schools, they are purchased in the community, ‘he continued.
‘Universities, I think they really need to have a strategy, a supervisory strategy, a test strategy. “Just testing students when you get them on campus is not a strategy that will bring you to the end of the game,” said Redfield.
The pressure to reopen schools comes as some SunBelt states continue to struggle to contain the spread of the virus, and teachers have threatened to quit or press to reopen without safe conditions. Currently, New York City is the only major city that can give students a share back to schools in September, but the plan has been dogged by controversy and opposition.
The Empire State, whose infections are trending, now has the lowest positivity rate since the start of the pandemic, and plans to reopen gyms with restrictions. Nationwide, confirmed infections continue to grow, close to 5.6 million cases this week with more than 174,000 deaths. Globally, cases are closer to 23 million and more than 794,000 have died from the virus.
In addition to the focus on school, child centers have also been under control, with CDC overseeing multiple in Rhode Island after the opening in the past three months. The center followed strict guidelines and tested children and adults every day as a regular. In addition, they were able to identify cases and prevent almost all potential secondary transmissions.
Redfield said during a media briefing Friday that the study was promising and shows the potential to control the spread of the virus if strict protocols are followed.
Clinical trial data
Separately, disclosures of trial data continue to shed more light on the race for effective COVID-19 treatments.
The drug Gilead Science (GILD), the only FDA-authorized drug for treating patients with coronavirus, has become part of regular medical protocol, in addition to steroids and lying patients on their stomachs. However, doubts have been raised about just how effective it is.
A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggests that although studies have shown some effect in shorter treatment courses for critically ill patients, the effect on moderate patients was unpredictable.
“Among patients with moderate COVID-19, those randomized to a 10-day course of inhibition did not show a statistically significant difference in clinical status compared with standard care at 11 days after initiation of treatment,” the publication noted.
“Patients randomized to a 5-day course of remdesivir had a statistically significant difference in clinical status compared with standard care, but the difference was of uncertain clinical significance,” according to the study’s authors.
Meanwhile, trial data for Pfizer (PFE) / BioNTech’s (BNTX) vaccine candidate, introduced in Phase 3 studies at the same time as Moderna, show why one candidate was chosen over another.
The duo originally had two candidates testing them out. Those who made it to the late-stage trial, which will enroll 30,000 patients, showed less unusual events in participants aged 18-55 years.
Anjalee Khemlani is in reporter by Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @AnjKhem
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