31% of children tested for COVID-19 in Florida have been positive, state data shows

Hide Transcript
Show Transcript

So on the school’s, I’d say a couple things. One is, and Jean alluded to this. We spent months saying that there were certain things that were essential that included fast food restaurants. It included Wal Mart. It included Home Depot, fast food in Walmart and Home Depot. And what I do all that, So I’m not gonna like looking down on it. But if all that is essential than educating our kids absolutely essential and they have been put to the back of the line in some respects. Florida’s done a better job with distance learning, I think, than any other state. But I’ll tell you, there’s a gap here. There’s big gaps around the country on, and we need to put them, give them the opportunity to go in person. I could say, as a parent, I have a newborn. I have a two year old three. They’re not old enough to go to school, so obviously there they won’t be, you know, in kindergarten or anything coming up. But I would not hesitate putting them in in terms of the risk, because the risk, fortunately for kids, is extremely, extremely low. That data has been verified in virtually every single country, every single state. Andi. We kind of knew that in March. Although I think a lot of people is a new virus. I understand. Look, my wife was very concerned. I know a lot of parents were just concerned, but now I mean, that’s very, very clear. And obviously, if you have ah, kid, that’s got significant health issue. We absolutely need to make accommodations for that, and they’re different things that you can do. The other reason, though, that people said back in March was, Well, yeah, it does look like that that kids are much lower risk. And that is true. CDC if you look under 18 substantially less likely to be hospitalized for Corona virus than for seasonal influenza, and that is just abundantly clear fatalities way higher with with influenza for that age co cord. But there was the concern that yes, okay, kids or low risk, But maybe they servas vectors and end up spreading it further in the community. Well, that’s been studied in a bunch of different countries, and it’s been shown every single time that they don’t serve as significant vectors for this like they do with influenza for whatever reason and when they do get. In fact, that is usually an adult infecting the Children, so I have no doubt we can do this safely. But I also told the secretary or the commissioner of education, he said, Look, you know, different parents have different calculations. If a parent wants to opt for virtual education, they should absolutely be able to do that. We shouldn’t be forcing them t do any types of decisions. But I’m confident if you can do Home Depot. If you can do Walmart. If you can do these things, we absolutely can do the schools. I want our kids to be able to minimize this education gap that I think is developed. You talked to teachers about what happens over the summer and how there’s a summer lag. Well, jeez, now we’re from mid March all the way now, and in spite of good efforts with the online, it’s just not the same. So I worry about that gap. I also worry about what it does to them in terms of just socializing and being normal kids. Now we do know that they do me and probably the whole time have been having friends and everything. But there’s something to be said for being in school, seeing people, you know, growing up like a normal, normal kid. I’m also worried about missing out on activities. I mean, I don’t want some some football player to miss a season or not be able to play when they’ve been working their whole life to be able to do well, maybe go to college. It’s just the costs are so enormously high, you know, toe have to have school closures, and so is bad as this, you know, has been toe have tohave of ah virus come from China like this. You know, the one thing that I think has made it something that a lot of parents have been able to breathe a sigh of relief is it is less risky for for young kids. And I don’t know why it wasn’t true with the Spanish flu in 1918 hasn’t been true with some of the other pathogens that have been unleashed, but But we know the science. We know that data and so we need to move forward for that