John Oliver Talks About Safe Reopening Of Schools – Deadline

Last week tonight with John Oliver He returned on Sunday night and the titular host was deep into the debate over whether or not to open schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. The short answer is: we shouldn’t … but unfortunately Donald Trump and his administration are pushing the opening of schools beyond understanding.

Trump has consistently disagreed with medical experts who say schools should open in the fall. He has even said he will fund schools that don’t open despite having little power to do so. Not surprisingly, Mike Pence has also aligned himself with Trump. In a clip shown from Pence, he flatly says they don’t want CDC guidance on why they don’t want schools to open.

“Mike Pence does not believe that the CDC guidelines should prevent the opening of schools? So what exactly are they for? Oliver asks. “These are public health guidelines. They should not be skimmed and ultimately considered irrelevant to our current situation. They are not Mary Trump’s book. “

White House financial adviser Larry Kudlow is also aboard this train back to school. He feels that there is no problem with the children going back to school. He thinks they can distance themselves socially and can take temperatures. He claims that “it is not that difficult.” Again, Oliver said otherwise.

“The safe reopening of schools will be incredibly difficult,” he says. “They are not designed for social distancing and the years of budget cuts and the economic recession will make it very difficult for them to improve their facilities.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly hinted that children are at low risk for serious illness. Oliver makes some sense of it all by saying that we don’t know if children are at low risk. Also, children are not the only people who go to school. Yes, adults go to school to teach these children that they are supposed to be “low risk.” In fact, a third of K-12 teachers are over 40 and that puts them at greater risk.

Oliver throws it into a clip of Mary Strickland, a 53-year-old high school teacher in Texas, who has seen a severe spike. She has been teaching for 22 years and admitted that she is terrified to return to the classroom. In fact, she is so scared that she and her husband began writing their wills because they are concerned about their health and life.

“Teachers should not go to work in fear that they may die,” Oliver replied to Strickland’s story. “They should be afraid of the usual things about teachers, like their students not paying them enough money to eat or having students turn them into a TikTok meme.”

In another news clip, Louisiana Senator John Neely Kennedy continued this nuanced way of thinking, claiming that keeping schools closed will do them much more harm than the coronavirus. He goes on to say that countries like France, Germany, Austria, Denmark “and even Vietnam” have reopened. Oliver quickly points out that the reopening of the schools was in very different circumstances. They were opened gradually and while the cases were low and falling. Meanwhile, the United States has recorded 77,000 new cases in one day and they continue to rise.

Oliver realizes that learning at home is a poor substitute, specifically with households that have limited access to the Internet and require special support. There are also many children who depend on schools for resources such as food. Also, parents are burdened with home schooling. In particular, it has a big impact on parents who can’t work remotely and have limited options when it comes to child care. This has a big impact on women, especially women of color. He acknowledges stress and as a father Oliver knows that there are many like him who want his children to go back to school.

He joked, “I love my children more than anything, but I would send them to study at Jake Paul’s house if that meant I could have my mornings back.”

Florida Ron DeSantis added to the Trump chorus saying that schools should remain open to maintain consistency. During a press conference, he said that education is essential, like grocery stores and restaurants, and since they are open, we also need to open schools. Oliver agrees that we have prioritized opening restaurants and bars before schools, but as we have seen, many advised that we should be much slower. DeSantis seems to ignore that advice when it comes to schools.

“Schools clearly don’t exist in a vacuum,” said Oliver. “The best way to safely reopen schools is, if I can quote Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Institute of Global Health, ‘You live in a community that does not have a major outbreak of disease. This is how you open schools safely. “

He continued: “Many of the decisions that could make schools safe involve what we can all do outside of them.”

The government could help by sending consistent messages about the importance of wearing face masks, possibly re-closing nonessential businesses, and ensuring that people who stay home receive a living wage.

“Our response here will only be as strong as our weakest link and other countries know this because understanding it, if I can quote Larry Kudlow, ‘is not that difficult.'”