Vice President Mike Pence said he would send his children back to school without hesitation if they were still young enough to be attending classes during the pandemic.
Pence said on Tuesday that all evidence shows that it is rare for children and young adults to have serious health complications if they contract COVID-19. He acknowledged that his children are all adults, but he said that he and his wife Karen Pence, who is an elementary school teacher, would not be afraid of their children attending classes.
“I’m your vice president, but the most important title I’ll ever hold is D.A.D. And I’m a proud father of three kids, two are married. But I can tell you with my wife seated right here, if our kids were elementary school-aged or high school or college, we wouldn’t hesitate to send them back to school,” he said during a press conference in South Carolina.
“Because I’ve been looking at this data everyday, and I’d encourage any American, any parent, in particular, to do the same because children without a serious underlying condition have a very low risk of serious outcome to the coronavirus,” he said.
Pence noted that the resistance to the coronavirus in people under the age of 25 is apparent in all global data. He said that schools will be taking steps to mitigate the spread of the virus within schools to keep students and faculty safe. He added that the developmental risks of keeping children out of schools are more significant than the risk of the virus.
“I wouldn’t hesitate to send my kids back to school based on the fact that the risk to children is low, but also, and we heard it again today, there are real costs when our kids are not in the classroom,” Pence said.
He referenced guidance released by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which strongly advised that schools prioritize having students physically present full-time.
“That’s 65,000 pediatricians across America that said it’s important first and foremost to get our kids back into school,” he added.
The Trump administration has been adamant that schools reopen. Several large school districts have already announced that they will not be returning to in-person instruction in the fall, including the Los Angeles and San Diego school districts.
