Trump press secretary downplays CDC data on children and coronavirus as White House promotes schools reopening
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended the administration's push to reopen schools amid the coronavirus pandemic this fall despite a Centres for Disease Control and Prevention study that shows children ages 10 to 19 are as infectious as adults.
Donald Trump announced this week that the Republican National Convention will cancel its Florida portion of the event in August over Covid-19 concerns, but then argued that it is crucial for schools to return within the same time frame.
On Thursday, McEnany claimed that "schools are a different situation, when you have children as the CDC guidelines clearly note, are not affected the same way as adults."
The CDC released its revised guidelines for reopening schools on Thursday, downplaying the risk of transmissions and arguing that "death rates among school-aged children are much lower than among adults."
"At the same time, the harms attributed to closed schools on the social, emotional, and behavioural health, economic well-being, and academic achievement of children, in both the short- and long-term, are well-known and significant," the guidelines said.
"There are severe consequences" to -person classes, McEnany said.
A report released by the agency earlier this month found that children under 10 years old were roughly half as likely as adults to spread the virus,
But "young children may show higher attack rates when the school closure ends, contributing to community transmission of Covid-19," the authors wrote.
Middle- and high-school aged children also are at a similar risk of health risks as adults, the report found.
"Household transmission of [Covid-19] was high if the index patient was 10-19 years of age," according to the report.
More follows...
Read more
Trump promotes opening schools but cancels RNC convention
Dave Grohl gives searing takedown of Trump stance on reopening schools
Pence 'absolutely' would send his children back to school
Teachers union in Florida suing over return to in-person classes
