President Joe Biden said on Sunday that it was essential for children to return to school “safely” and that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would release “scientific” guidelines later this week on the requirements for schools to reopen in the middle of of the ongoing pandemic.
The president’s comments come during a pre-Super Bowl interview on CBS Evening News. Asked by anchor Norah O’Donnell whether about 20 million American children had not been in the classroom for nearly a year – and the mental health damage it caused – a “national emergency,” Biden said.
The president said he thinks it is time for schools to reopen “safely” under certain guidelines.
“You need to have fewer people in classrooms. You need to have ventilation systems that have been remodeled,” Biden said. “Our CDC commissioner will come out with scientific judgment within Wednesday afternoon to determine what the minimum requirements are.”
FILE: President Joe Biden talks about the economy in the state White House dining room in Washington.
(AP)
However, the president does not mention that CDC guidelines for reopening schools have been available for months. In mid-September – almost two months before the 2020 presidential election – the agency released ‘Indicators for School Decision-Making’.
The recommendations created a five-level risk assessment based on the number of new cases per 100,000 persons within the previous 14 days, and the percentage of positivity rates within the same period.
The CDC said that a school that falls into a ‘medium’, ‘higher’ or ‘highest’ risk category does not necessarily mean that the school should not reopen to personal learning, but only that the school ‘alternative learning’ must use. models “like a hybrid ladder.
Last month, the federal agency said in a report that there was “little evidence that schools have made a significant contribution to the greater distribution of the community.”
Last week, Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, told reporters at a news conference: “There is growing evidence that schools can reopen safely and that safe reopening does not mean that teachers need to be vaccinated to reopen safely. “Vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for the safe reopening of schools.”
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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday asked to respond to Walensky’s comments, saying the CDC director was speaking “in her personal capacity.”
“It is clear that she is the head of the CDC. But we are going to wait for the final guidance to come out so that we can use it as a guideline for schools across the country,” Psaki said. “[Biden] believes that even with vaccinations for teachers or for any American, there are a number of other mitigation steps that are important to take … wearing masks, social distance, ventilation, these are all factors that are important for .. the reopening of schools. ‘
Biden has promised to reopen most of the country’s K-8 schools within his first hundred days, a goal he says is possible if Congress approves its pandemic rescue plan and as state teachers in the vaccination of prioritize vaccines. But the critics who say Biden is hiding from unions for teachers who helped him get elected fell under the plan.
Both of the two largest teachers’ unions have endorsed Biden as president, including the National Education Association.
Some on the left have issued similar reprimands, including former New York mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg, who told MSNBC that Biden should “stand up” against teachers’ unions and return to the classroom.
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Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, denounced the teachers’ unions during an appearance on Fox News on Sunday, which he says is the essential possession of the Biden government.
“It’s just because of the influence, the political influence that the teachers’ union has on the Democratic Party,” Jackson said. “They’re just a big biased suit. And as far as I’m concerned, it’s the worst of the worst in terms of public unions, because they get to control the Democrats.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.