Dr. Wilma Wooten says schools can’t open because that gives ‘the opportunity for people to gather’
SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – As President Trump and Vice President Pence continue to urge schools to reopen across the United States, states like New York and California haven’t yet announced if there will be in-person classes for the upcoming Fall 2020 semester.
Tuesday on KUSI News, SDUSD Board Member Richard Barrera even blamed President Trump for their inability to get schools ready for in-person classes.
Wednesday on Good Morning San Diego, Dr. Scott Atlas and Author, Alex Berenson, pushed for the reopening of schools citing the data that children and young people are not being impacted by the disease.
Dr. Atlas said, “we know it’s factually true and proven all over the world that people under 18 have very little, if any, risk of a serious illness and essentially no risk of dying.”
Alex Berenson also believes that schools should be open, explaining, “they should have reopened by May, because all over Europe, Australia, Japan, most of the rest of the developed world, reopened schools by, certainly by early June, and even before that. It is very clear that children are at low risk from this, they are at lower risk from this than the flu, there are more flu deaths than COVID deaths, that has been true from the beginning of this. They don’t seem to spread it very aggressively, they don’t seem to spread it to adults, they’re much more likely to get it from adults than spread it to adults. It is almost criminal to me, that we have denied our children education.”
Troy Flint, CIO of the California School Boards Association, told KUSI News he does not believe California school districts have the resources to have in-person classes in the Fall semester.
Following up on this debate, KUSI News asked San Diego County Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten if she has data that shows schools should not reopen for the Fall.
KUSI’s question read, “There seems to be no medical reason that says schools can’t be open, do you have any conflicting data?”
Wilma responded, “Well when schools reopen, you have the opportunity for people to gather, and as everyone is aware, increased outbreaks are associated to people gathering. So this is a tough issue, there are no easy answers. We have not been in this, the Country has not been in this position before. So some very tough decisions will need to be made. We will provide consultation and technical assistance to the San Diego County office of Education.”
