Jerome Adams: Coronavirus transmission rate should determine school plans

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Tuesday said the coronavirus transmission rate in individual states should determine whether schools reopen.

But teachers’ unions have drawn up their own plans and some teachers are threatening a sickout if classes resume in the fall.

“What I want people to know is the biggest determinant of whether or not we can go back to school actually has little to nothing to do with the actual schools,” said Dr. Adams. “It’s your background transmission rate.”

He said people need to wear face coverings and practice social distancing if they want to move back toward a “normal” way of life.

“We’ve seen in Norway, we’ve seen in Denmark that when they start with a low background transmission rate they were able to safely reopen schools with minimal to no transmission among young people,” he told CBS News.

He noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released steps and guidelines that schools can take to safely reopen.”

But again, the most important thing is what we do outside of schools before we reopen to lower the transmission rate,” he said.

President Trump, who is pushing schools to reopen, has pointed out that countries like Germany, Norway and Sweden have reopened schools with few problems.

But as Dr. Adams alluded to, the rates of transmission in those countries are substantially lower compared to the United States.

Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday said he and second lady Karen Pence would have no qualms about sending their children back to school in the fall as long as facilities are adhering to COVID-19 protocols to ensure safety for teachers and staff.

“We wouldn’t hesitate to send them back to school. Because I’ve been looking at this data every day,” said Mr. Pence, who was traveling in South Carolina.

He said the coronavirus poses very little risk to children without an underlying medical condition.

But in Florida, where COVID-19 cases have surged, teachers are skeptical about the state’s decision to open schools for in-person learning next month.

Fedrick Ingram, president of the Florida Education Association, said teachers might simply not show up.

“Nothing is off the table,” Mr. Ingram said on NBC’s “Today” show. “I don’t know. I think teachers are making those decisions right now.”

He indicated that some teachers are weighing whether they should retire or change professions right now.

“Or I’m simply just … not going to work at all until I believe that our schools are safe,” he said. “We should not be fearing for our own lives going back into a school building.”

Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran had issued an emergency order mandating that K-12 schools in the state open for at least five days per week starting next month.

The FEA, backed by national teacher unions, filed a lawsuit on Monday that seeks to invalidate the order and ensure that schools have access to protective equipment and plans for reduced class sizes before they reopen.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had said the CDC planned to put out supplementary guidance on how schools can safely reopen.

Mr. Trump had criticized CDC guidelines, which include recommendations on social distancing and mask-wearing, as too costly and cumbersome.

⦁ Tom Howell Jr. contributed to this report.