When Will Kids Go Back to School? Fauci Predicts

Even if he's right, 'it's going to be different'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 8, 2020 8:18 AM CDT
When Will Kids Go Back to School? Fauci Predicts
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus at the White House on Tuesday.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The White House coronavirus task force press briefings have become an almost daily occurrence, and Americans often look to hearing Dr. Anthony Fauci speak about his expectations on when to expect relief from the virus and its associated restrictions. Parents in particular have a pressing question amid all the school closures: When will the kids head back to the classroom? CNN and the Week report on the answer to that query, placed Tuesday at the regular presser. First to respond was Vice President Mike Pence, head of the task force, who said that they're trying to hash out guidelines for school reopenings, whether that means summer school or an autumn return. "The most important thing we can do is put this epidemic behind us as quickly as possible," Pence noted.

Fauci then took the mic. "Well, my daughter is a school teacher, so she asked me the same question," he said. "I fully expect—though I'm humble enough to know that I can't accurately predict—that by the time we get to the fall ... we will have this under control enough that it certainly will not be the way it is now, where people are shutting schools." He pinpointed that general timeline because he thinks by then that testing will be more widespread and that it will hopefully be easier to see who's had the disease via the presence of antibodies. "I think we're going to be in good shape" come the latter part of the year, he added, though he doesn't think things look as promising for summer camps, per the Denver Channel. Fauci also offered another caveat on the eventual reopening of schools: "It's going to be different ... because [the virus] is not going to disappear." (More coronavirus stories.)

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