President Biden has continually intoned that we must “follow the science.” He needs to follow his own advice and lead on the issue of school reopening.
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms what has been known for some time: that K-12 schools are not associated with Covid-19 transmission—either within the schools themselves or out into the community, from students—and that they can safely reopen for in-person learning. The CDC cites multiple studies documenting no connection between in-person instruction and community incidence of Covid-19 or hospitalization rates.
Opening schools represents little risk to kids. Children and adolescents, ages five to 17, are less likely than adults to be infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. And when children and adolescents are infected, they are much less likely than adults to develop symptoms, suffer severe disease, or die. As of January 27, the CDC reports only 203 deaths in the under-18 age group—not even a tenth of 1 percent of total U.S. Covid-19 deaths.
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