Dr. Fauci, one of the nation's leading experts on infectious disease, and the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was speaking to Congress today about the dangers of reopening the country too soon. Fauci relayed the message that: "If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines...then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country. This will not only result in needless suffering and death, but would actually set us back on our quest to return to normal."
Senator Rand Paul addressed Dr. Fauci's warning to Congress in the following way:
"The history of this when we look back will be wrong prediction after wrong prediction after wrong prediction... As much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don't think you're the end all, I don't think you're the one person that gets to make a decision." Wow, Sen. Paul not holding back! He's not wrong though...There are other experts on the other side saying they do not believe there will be another surge or resurgence in the Fall so for us to prematurely cancel school for the rest of the year, will have negative consequences. Which is the lesser or two evils? Do we take a gamble based on the maybe possibility that a resurgence happens or do we go ahead as planned and open the schools in the Fall? That's the big debate right now.
Additionally, Senator Elizabeth Warren took today's hearing as an opportunity to get more facts out of Dr. Fauci in terms of if he thinks we have the virus contained. He responded saying this: “If you think that we have it completely under control, we don’t."
Will the our "new normal" include children going back to school this Fall? If it were up to the Republicans and Sen. Rand Paul, my guess is yes they will. If it was strictly up to Dr. Fauci, the Democrats, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, my guess is that children will be continuing to do remote learning from home through the end of this year and into next year. Your thoughts?
-Producer Lightning