Coronavirus

Anthony Fauci: 'Close the Bars and Keep the Schools Open'

"If you look at the data, the spread among children and from children is not very big at all."

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(Chris Kleponis/CNP / Polaris/Newscom)

Anthony Fauci, an infectious diseases expert and top advisor to the White House on the COVID-19 pandemic, said that he was for closing bars and restaurants but reopening schools in an interview on Sunday.

"The default position should be to try as best as possible, within reason, to keep the children in school, to get them back to school," Fauci told ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz, who noted that New York City public schools had recently closed down again due to rising coronavirus rates in the community.

While some on Twitter reacted as if Fauci had finally admitted some truth that he had previously denied, this is not really a new opinion: In May, when Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) questioned the doctor about pandemic mitigation efforts, the two appeared to largely agree that a one-size-fits-all policy was the wrong approach, and that some school schools should open on a district-by-district basis. Still, with public schools not even attempting to reopen in many large city districts—including Washington D.C. and Los Angeles—it's useful to hear Fauci state so clearly and unequivocally that this is misguided.

"If you look at the data, the spread among children and from children is not very big at all, not like one would have suspected," said Fauci. "So let's try to get the kids back and try to mitigate the things that maintain and push the kind of community spread we are trying to avoid."

Public officials giving in to the increasingly unreasonable demands of teachers union leaders—many of whom expect schools to remain closed for at least another year—are not following the science. They are ignoring what's best for the kids. And they certainly aren't listening to Fauci.