US President Donald Trump threatens to withhold public funds for schools if they do not reopen this fall.
On Twitter, he points out that countries like Norway, Denmark and Germany have reopened schools “without problems”. Trump claims Democrats will keep schools closed for political reasons until the November presidential election.
Trump is also pushing hard against the guidelines of the United States National Infection Protection Center (CDC), which he believes are costly and complicated. CDC Director Robert Redfield agrees that schools should reopen.
“Nothing would make me sadder than seeing school districts use our guidelines as a reason not to open again,” he says.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
The President is overlooking that Norway’s schools could reopen only because – thanks to the Høyre government’s early, wise, and extreme lockdown – Norway got the virus firmly under control just in time before it could spiral out of control like it has in Britain and Sweden and some incautious U.S. states
… although it should still institute mandatory facemasking at least on public transportation.
Schools have always been transmission terminals of any infection, and sanitation, social distancing, and ventilation – and facemasking – MUST be followed to prevent a renewed outbreak of the pandemic.