Make U.S. schools reopening guidelines mandatory, Pelosi says
From WWW.REUTERS.COM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal health guidelines on how U. S. schools can safely reopen amid the coronavirus outbreak - criticized by President Donald Trump as too tough - should be mandatory, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday.
The Democratic House of Representatives leader sharply criticized the Trump administration for advocating a return to school in the fall as coronavirus infections surge across the country, particularly in states that reopened their economies earliest during the pandemic.
“Going back to school presents the biggest risk for the spread of the coronavirus,” Pelosi said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “If there are (Centers for Disease and Control Prevention) guidelines, they should be requirements.”
The federal government can make the health safety measures requirements, as state governors are doing, she said. Critics of the Trump administration’s pandemic response have long called for a national strategy on mitigation efforts.
“They should be mandates,” Pelosi said.
Trump last week attacked the federal government’s health protection agency, the CDC, for school reopening guidelines that he said were too tough, expensive and impractical.
On Sunday, the Republican president’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, refused to encourage states and school districts to follow the CDC guidelines.
DeVos also failed to put forth any other blueprint for a safe schools reopening, saying there was no one-size-fits-all solution.
“We know that children get the virus at a far lower rate than any other part of the population. There is nothing in the data that would suggest that kids being back in school is dangerous to them,” she told CNN.
DeVos also downplayed the risk of children bringing the virus home to teachers, parents, grandparents or caregivers.
Her comments drew an immediate rebuke fro... (Read more)
https://twitter.com/TeamPelosi/status/1282087315603689477
https://twitter.com/ReutersPolitics/status/1282351535897411586
Submitted 1384 days ago
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