The reopening of schools will provide information on the spread of the coronavirus as optimism for a vaccine grows later this year.

With schools closed from March to April, as coronavirus cases rose to more than 4.3 million and deaths rose to 149,258, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, a knowledge gap persisted about how young children experience and They transmit the virus, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday.

Although Fauci said there is no “one-dimensional answer” on how schools should reopen, he reiterated that “the default position should be that we should try our best to get children back to school.”

“I feel with some cautious optimism that it is a reasonable statement to have a safe and effective vaccine by December.”

The vaccine prevents serious illness and prevents it from spreading

Moderna’s experimental vaccine is advancing rapidly and showing promising results as the Phase 3 trial begins.

The vaccine, which the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases helped develop, began testing on humans on Monday, making it the fastest advance for a new vaccine in the United States.

The vaccine was tested on rhesus macaque monkeys. And while it’s unclear whether the vaccine will work in humans as it does in primates, the test results show that after two days, most infected monkeys no longer had a detectable amount of the virus in their lungs, according to the NIAID investigators said in a statement.

None of the monkeys that received the highest dose of the vaccine also had no virus in their noses. That would suggest that the vaccine could prevent the spread of the virus, even if people do become infected.

“This is the first time that an experimental COVID-19 vaccine tested in non-human primates has been shown to produce such rapid viral control in the upper airway,” the researchers noted.

If the vaccine does the same for humans, they could greatly reduce the spread of disease, they said.

Hydroxychloroquine rumors that distract from the ‘most powerful weapon’ available

But the drug hasn’t been shown to be effective against the coronavirus and may even produce harmful side effects, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday.

“All the time we often end up spending to dispel these myths about hydroxychloroquine is time we are not spending working to solve the real problem before us,” Murthy said.

And measures already in place to combat the spread of the virus could be the key to solving the problem, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday in an interview with ABC. News.

“We have the most powerful weapon in our hands right now, I mean it is an enormously powerful weapon. It is just a simple and flimsy mask,” Redfield said. “This virus can be defeated if people simply wear a mask.”

Decline numbers after mask requirements

Although some states continue to observe sudden increases and setting records in the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, the total of new cases on Tuesday across the country was 56,336, the second lowest in the past 20 days. The country’s seven-day average for new cases was 65,083 on Monday, the lowest number since July 15.

Kentucky, a state among at least 41 requiring masks, reported 532 new cases Tuesday and a positivity rate of 5.08%, which fell for the first time in four days, Gov. Andy Beshear said.

“Again, it is too early to draw conclusions, but I hope I have said, I hope we are starting to see, because the time frame is right, where the facial coverage requirement is starting to come in and help,” Beshear added.

Fauci reiterated the advice to states that are still experiencing increases on Tuesday: wear masks, social distance, close bars where the spread is high, wash your hands and reopen economies in phases.

“We hope that (the states) will now reconsider what happens when they don’t adhere to that,” Fauci told “Good Morning America.”