‘Re-examine all the evidence’: Rand Paul demands Fauci reconsider position on school closures

Paul’s post came alongside an article from WIRED magazine with the headline “The Case for Reopening Schools.”

“Schools are reopening in countries around the world in response to a substantial body of evidence that children are largely unaffected by Covid-19 and minimally contagious when they get infected,” the article’s author, David Zweig, starts out. “Experts and policymakers abroad also acknowledge that school closures perpetuate a long list of known harms to children.”

The article points out that the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that just 1% of coronavirus patients were under 10 years old, and another 1% were aged 10 to 19 years old.

Additionally, coronavirus data out of New York City, which is the hardest-hit area in the United States, shows seven deaths under 18, out of more than 14,000 at the time the article was published.

Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson, who has become one of the most recognized faces of the anti-lockdown movement, has pointed out that countries like Switzerland, Iceland, and Germany have all ended or plan to end school restrictions soon.

Some, including Dr. Fauci, insist young people can be carriers of the virus, which is enough of a risk to keep schools closed, but as Zweig points out in his article, there is contradicting evidence of that.

A report from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment for the Netherlands came up with “no indications that children younger than 12 years were the first to be infected within the family.”

Zweig’s article also points out the devastating psychological and physical effects closing schools can have on children and their families.

“Closures impose heavier costs on underprivileged families, for instance, by complicating access to school lunch programs and making reliable internet connections an absolute necessity,” the article states. “Prolonged sequestration at home has been linked to escalated rates of child abuse. It also seems to create major mental health problems, with studies and polls reaching the obvious conclusion that loneliness, disconnect, and depression have all risen among children and teens.”

Fauci and Paul squared off in a Senate hearing earlier this week, with Paul challenging the task force doctor on the debate of whether schools should remain closed.

“Shouldn’t we at least be discussing what the mortality of children is?” Paul asked Fauci before noting that the mortality rate of coronavirus patients up to 18 “approaches zero” in New York and that the notion of not sending kids back to school in the fall is “really ridiculous.”

“I think we better be careful that we’re not cavalier, in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects,” Fauci said at one point.