Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, wears a face mask while waiting to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the Trump Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, United States, June 23, 2020.
Kevin Dietsch | Reuters
Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House health advisor, warned parents sending children back to school that children over 9 years old can transmit the coronavirus as well as adults, and said it should be Consider when deciding whether to reopen schools in the fall.
“It has been shown that children ages 10 to 19 can transmit the virus to adults as well as adults,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview Wednesday on MSNBC.
A recently published study in South Korea indicated that while children under the age of 9 were less likely than adults to transmit the virus to their families, teens were at least as likely to transmit the disease as adults.
Members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America have previously pointed to the study and warned against reopening schools in states where coronavirus cases are emerging.
“The problem we are facing is that we are in a large country and it has significant differences in the level of the virus,” Fauci told MSNBC.
Fauci said there are negative consequences for keeping students home, many rely on schools for meals, and that districts should do their best to reopen. However, the primary consideration should be the health and safety of students, teachers and their families, she said.
He added that some areas of the country will have an easier time welcoming students back to school, since the virus is not spreading uncontrollably. Areas with high levels of the virus may need to modify their reopening plans, such as moving some classes outdoors and adopting a hybrid of online and in-person instruction.
“When you get to the real hot spots, I think you will have to look very closely and examine whether or not it is appropriate,” he said. “What is likely to happen is that you would have parents who don’t want to send their children to school, or you will have teachers who don’t want to be there.”
Fauci warned again of a possible increase in Covid-19 cases that are brewing in states like Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana, which have reported an increase in the so-called positivity rate, or the percentage of tests that are positive.
He said that if they do not take further steps to contain the spread of the virus, states “that are not yet in trouble are likely to get in trouble.”
“It is very important to get ahead of the curve because what we are seeing now is what really happened a couple of weeks ago, and what we will see in a few weeks is what we are doing now,” Fauci said.
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