Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Today’s entry:
Brian I’m confused. Hasn’t all of the “science” suggested schools are safe? I’ve heard you talk about this. The CDC’s guidance must be bunk science.
Bottom Line: On Friday the CDC issued its updated guidance officially referred to as the “Plan, Prepare, and Respond” plan. The updated operational strategy plan includes a 36 page K-12 Mitigation Toolkit and a whole host of recommendations for a “hybrid” remote learning and classroom education model based on the concentration of cases and levels of community spread. The CDC’s guidance uses a five-tiered color-coding system applying its new safety standards. Under the current guidance, 89% of students live in “red zones” and 99% of students currently attending school are in “red zones”. Those schools wouldn’t be open for classroom education if the CDC’s standards were applied. Only 115,000 students are enrolled in school districts currently considered low risk by the CDC. So how did the CDC arrive at these guidelines? The CDC simply had this to say: