As the chief medical correspondent of CNN, Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been covering the pandemic since it began and he recently shared his opinion about the schools’ reopening this autumn.
The neurosurgeon who’s 50 spoke about his reasons why he won’t be sending his three pre-teen and teen daughters to school in the ongoing pandemic.
He said that this has been an ongoing topic of discussion in his home.
Our Girls Won’t Be in School for the Current Time Being
After they took into account all of the objective criteria and their own community, they’ve decided to not send their girls to school, he wrote in an article on CNN.
This wasn’t an easy decision; however, it’s one that they believe is the best respect for science, lowers the chances for spread, and follows the criteria of the task force.
Gupta also wrote that schools have been implementing safety measures in accordance with the recommendations by the CDC and Prevention; however, none of this will work, he believes, if children aren’t diligent about these practices in classrooms, hallways, and buses.
He also added that even if they test all of the students, it’s not the ideal way of maintaining the safety of everyone.
Plus, he believes that many tests have given false negatives and while someone may be tested negative today, we can’t know for sure if they won’t be positive tomorrow.
Gupta Also Considered the Information about the Spread of the Virus among Children
Gupta wrote that although it’s true that young people are less likely to get covid-19 in comparison to older adults, they’re not immune. They can still get the infection and spread it fast.
He wrote about the recent study done in South Korea which found that children between the age of 10 and 19 spread the virus as much as the adults did.
Also, the study concluded that children younger than 10 didn’t account for a major amount of viral spread; however, Gupta challenged this finding.
He researched the study further and noticed a crucial detail-it had fewer than 30 positive cases of younger than 10.
The low rate of the spread may not have been a result of a lesser likelihood to transfer the virus, but because they’ve been mostly home in the last few months and had fewer contacts.
Teachers Will also Be at Risk
Gupta also discussed his worries about the staff and faculty in schools who will be at a higher risk due to the in-person learning.
Young students aren’t the only ones in the school communities-according to another analysis, ¼ of teachers in the US are at a higher risk of a serious disease from the virus, either because of their age or because of an underlying medical condition.
He concluded that making these decisions now isn’t something easy and different families will maybe have different conclusions from the same data. In a way, he claims, people have been forced to become amateur epidemiologists and the best parents possible.
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