“You can do science and come to a number of different conclusions and policy directions, but you are still faithful to science,” said Rich Besser, former director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The CDC released guidelines on Friday for the reopening of schools, outlining strategies to bring students and teachers back safely and, at the same time, mitigate the spread of the virus. The CDC made it clear, however, that it was not forcing schools to reopen. This, for the time being, has circumvented the tough struggle that has put teachers in search of strong safeguards as a precondition for returning to schools against some parents eager to free their children from virtual learning.
“Science is evolving,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and an ally of Biden. “It is not a political calculation, it is based on trying to make science work.”
Biden government officials insist that the White House is basing all of its political decisions firmly on the best evidence available. They say the president receives a daily update on the pandemic status from his Covid response team in his daily information book. And indeed, the Biden administration has taken care to give health experts like Anthony Fauci and CDC director Rochelle Walensky leadership roles in managing the response and has asked for constant contributions from its health agencies and outside public health groups.
This has been especially the case in areas such as the reopening of schools and travel restrictions, where management has had to navigate a maze of interests, from unions that insist on zero risk strategies, including vaccines, to airlines in financial distrust wary of a Covid home test requirement.
“There are always complicated policies when you’re dealing with difficult issues,” said Kevin Munoz, a White House spokesman, in a statement. “But this moment transcends politics – Americans’ lives are at stake. Our focus is to inspire confidence in the American people in our response to the pandemic – and that means following science and letting experts be our guide. It won’t make everyone 100 percent happy all the time, and that’s okay because the goal at the end of the day is to do what’s best for public health. ”
The science debate complicated the impulse to reopen White House schools in particular, which focused on the CDC’s assurances that teachers do not need to be vaccinated to return to the classroom – even when the agency warns the general public that a number of Covid Variants can mean that the virus is more contagious than ever.
“The fact that we advise the double cover and minimize the presence of your neighbors at the Super Bowl parties – all things sensible – somehow conflicts with the guidance of teachers, especially high-risk teachers,” said Vin Gupta, professor at the University of Washington Institute of Health Metrics and Assessment, who served as one of the first advisers to the Biden team. “This is a question of how to ensure that public policy is consistent enough not to damage public trust.”
To exacerbate local anxiety, the Biden government has no clear power to compel states to open schools responsibly, regardless of the recommendations it issues. Many states are already openly challenging the CDC’s guidelines by loosening a number of other public health restrictions that govern everyday life.
“People are smart and they are recognizing that,” said Gupta. “They are not going to feel safe just because you told them or because the data suggests it.”
Biden transition officials spent weeks devising plans to safely reopen schools based on best public health practices, including proposing a new testing regime for Covid and hundreds of billions of dollars in funding to help renovate classrooms and renovate ventilation systems.
The vision, outlined in Covid’s $ 1.9 trillion bailout proposal from Biden, included modifying classrooms to allow greater distance between students and purchasing personal protective equipment, and even suggested an increase transportation capacity to reduce the number of people riding buses together and from school.
But despite their efforts, the team underestimated how difficult it would be to sell the plan to the teachers’ unions that widely supported Biden’s presidential campaign – especially without the promise of a vaccine, said a consultant involved in planning.
“We didn’t think the teachers’ unions would be so reluctant,” said the consultant, adding that Psaki’s statement this week that the reopening meant that the children returned to school one day a week was far from the team’s original vision.
The mixed signals opened the government to criticism from various sides and put the White House on the defensive for the first time during the carefully choreographed launch of its Covid response.
“Science couldn’t be more direct: schools must safely reopen their doors for students now,” said Rep. Steve Scalise, the top Republican on the Chamber’s coronavirus subcommittee, echoing a view that has gained increasing strength across the Party. Republican last week. “President Biden promised to reopen schools in 100 days and follow science, but instead he broke that promise and followed the leadership of the radical unions.”
Meanwhile, a contingent of Biden’s allies questioned why the White House was so adamant that states reopen schools – without being equally expressive about putting teachers in front of vaccination lines. Although Walensky said on Friday that educators should be prioritized, she dismissed the photos as just “an additional layer of protection”.
Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease specialist who served on Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board, predicted that Biden would soon face an even more critical crossroads in his quest to reopen schools, warning that the emergence of rapidly spreading variants could lead to country’s worst pandemic is yet to come.
“I think this discussion is going to be useless soon,” he said, pointing to the variant that has already forced European countries to close their schools. “When B117 takes over in six weeks or more, I think our entire country will be approaching the darkest days with this virus.”
Osterholm has long advocated the resumption of classroom learning. But the United States is not vaccinating people at the rate necessary to prevent the variant from spreading, he argued, probably forcing the government to abandon its most ambitious reopening goals.
“The government will have to understand this and start to moderate its message accordingly,” said Osterholm.
Asked whether the White House recognizes the seriousness of the threat to its political goals, he contested: “There are some who clearly do. And I think they’re trying, ”he said.