be up to eight boosters, and that s the angle. joining me now is board certified md phd research scientist. doctor, what s your message to the schools that are now locking down over this omicron variant? my message, laura, is this. you did it once and what did it achieve? you did it once for over a year, close down colleges, universities, elementary schools, all the way through high school, and did we do anything in a meaningful, tangible way to reduce spread, to reduce hospitalization, to reduce death? that was before even we had vaccines. it was before we had medication and it was before we actually knew how the virus transmitted and how it infected people and who was at risk. now we know all those things. we have vaccines, amazing medications with many more in development that are about to come out and on top of that, we know how this transmits and how it doesn t transmit and most
texas observer, she s a student at the university of texas. rachel, what prompted you to write the piece? well, i was really concerned about the fear that people are bringing up about these kids being a disease threat. we should be concerned about children from central america who have made this long journey, who have been trafficked, who come from violent places. we should be concerned about their health, but we shouldn t think of them as a health threat to americans, because frankly, if you look at the facts especially with respect to vaccine-preventable diseases, these kids are more likely to be vaccinated than kids in texas. you re someone who studies public health, md phd. you think there s nothing there, just as a matter of basic the basic facts of this from a public health perspective, this scare mongering about them, these kids, a public health threat, is not really there s no there, there. i do think there are some diseases of concern, but most of