The Missouri governor said students need to return to school this fall despite public health concerns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
“These kids have got to get back to school, they’re at the lowest risk possible,” said Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, during an interview last week on a local radio program. “And if they do get COVID-19, which they will — and they will when they go to school — they’re not going to the hospitals … They are going to go home, and they’re gonna get over it.”
President Trump and several Republican governors have insisted that students return to in-person classes on a full-time basis this fall. Most schools around the country transitioned to an online-only model as the virus spread.
“We do want to get our schools open,” Trump said last week. “There’s virtually no impact on children. They’re just stronger than we are, their immune system or whatever it may be, but we want the schools open.”
In Missouri, state education officials announced a plan earlier this month to reopen schools safely, which includes mask mandates, social distancing procedures, and some online instruction to limit contact between students and staffers.
“I think it’s important to get some sort of traditional learning environment in place and to have a pathway to move forward in a way that is safe,” said St. Louis County Executive Sam Page, who oversees one of the state’s largest districts.
Margie Vandeven, Missouri’s education commissioner, said the state plans to use $55 million in federal coronavirus aid to help schools manage the pandemic.
Parson is running for reelection, and the Democratic candidate for Missouri governor, state auditor Nicole Galloway, seized on his comments about reopening schools.
“This is stunning ignorance from [Parson] on how COVID-19 affects children,” Galloway said. “He admitted that he’s okay with your kids (and your families) getting the deadly disease when he sends them back to school. Does he not realize multiple American kids have died after being infected?”
According to the Mayo Clinic, children can contract the coronavirus but are less likely to become seriously ill. One of the major concerns federal public health experts have regarding the coronavirus and children is asymptomatic spread, a phenomenon government officials fear has exacerbated the pandemic in recent weeks.
“There’s no doubt they can be asymptomatic. Do they carry (the virus) more often than adults?” Dr. Lara Shekerdemian, chief of critical care at Texas Children’s Hospital, told USA Today. “That’s a hard one to answer. There isn’t enough surveillance going on in the community.”
In early June, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, said it’s too optimistic to expect students to return to full-time instruction this coming year.
“I hesitate to make any broad statements about whether it is or is not quote ‘safe’ for kids to come back to school,” Fauci said. “Children can get infected, so, yes, so you’ve got to be careful,” Fauci said. “You got to be careful for them, and you got to be careful that they may not spread it. Now, to make an extrapolation that you shouldn’t open schools, I think is a bit of a reach.”
