President Biden has said many times that he wants most schools to be open by his 100th day in office, April 30. And on Friday, Feb. 12, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines intended to help schools operate in person safely. But some argue these guidelines will do the opposite, and if followed strictly, would actually force schools to close.
“Wake up call to parents! If schools start following this new guidance strictly, kids are not getting back to full-time school,” Joseph Allen, the director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program and an expert on ventilation, told NPR’s Steve Inskeep. Maybe not even by next fall, he said.
Rather than pour oil on troubled waters, the administration’s guidance and public statements seem to have poured an energy drink over an already intense debate — one where the relationship among school operations, COVID-19 levels and politics is far from straightforward or uniform.
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