Trump says schools should reopen because children are 'virtually immune'
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump defended his call to reopen schools this fall by claiming children are "virtually immune" from COVID-19 and that the coronavirus will "go away" soon.
“This thing’s going away – It will go away like things go away," Trump said during a wide-ranging interview on "Fox & Friends" a day after authorities reported more than 1,000 Americans died of the virus.
Children can catch – and pass on – the coronavirus, doctors have said. The National Education Association has cited that in arguing that reopening schools this fall may maintain spikes in the spread of the virus, which has claimed more than 150,000 American lives.
Trump said as early as February that the virus would eventually "disappear," but the pandemic has accelerated at various points over the past five months.
"This is the magical thinking that has misled us down the road to 155,000 deaths," said Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University.
A study in the publication Science has shown that children under age 14 are between one-third and one-half as likely as adults to contract the virus.
Trump, who has threatened to withhold federal funds from school districts if they don't reopen, often refers to such studies in urging schools to bring back students.
"The fact is they are virtually immune from this problem," Trump told Fox & Friends.
Education groups said students can and do get sick, and said the president is playing politics with education and people's lives.
"Educators believe they are viewed as expendable, and they feel forced to choose between their jobs or the health of themselves and their loved ones," Lily Eskelsen García, a sixth grade teacher who serves as president of the 3-million-member NEA, said in a statement. "Most important, traumatized students aren’t receiving equitable tools and resources from the federal government that they need to be successful in this time of unprecedented crisis.”
St. Andrew's Episcopal School, a suburban school in Maryland attended by Trump's son Barron, said it would not open and would opt for virtual learning. In a letter to parents, the school said a government directive "aligns with our most current thinking about how to open school well in September while protecting the health of our students, families, and employees."
During a phone interview on Fox that lasted nearly an hour, Trump again decried mail-in voting, saying it could take months to count all those ballots and keep the results of the presidential election too long in doubt.
He also said he was considering delivering his Republican acceptance speech on Aug. 27 at the White House, saying it would be more efficient in terms of security and expense.
Trump criticized predecessor President Barack Obama for giving an "angry speech" last week at the funeral of congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis. In his eulogy, Obama said supporters should honor Lewis' legacy by passing voting rights legislation that he said has been undermined during the Trump administration.
More: Should I send my child back to school? This is the latest science on coronavirus and kids
More: Trump backtracks on his condemnation of mail-in voting, says Florida is an exception
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Trump pushes reopening by saying children 'immune'
