Mesa doctor: Evolving data should lead to another in-person learning delay
Jul 21, 2020, 4:05 AM | Updated: 11:58 am
(Cheryl Evan/The Arizona Republic via AP, Pool)
(Cheryl Evan/The Arizona Republic via AP, Pool)
PHOENIX — A Mesa doctor told CNN Monday evolving research regarding how children respond to COVID-19 has led a group of Arizona medical workers to believe in-person learning should be delayed again statewide.
Dr. Stephen Kessler and 87 other Arizona medical workers sent an open letter to Gov. Doug Ducey earlier this month urging the Republican leader to cancel in-person through at least the first quarter of the upcoming academic year.
“This letter came out of concern that the current research as to the spread of this disease by children — specifically, the chance that they get it and spread it to others — is really evolving,” Kessler told CNN.
“There’s some evolving data … that seems to suggest that this virus may act like any other traditional respiratory virus. Not only are children likely to be infected at the same rate as adults, but there’s an emerging thought that they are just as likely to spread the virus as adults.”
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Kessler added that his children attend the Madison School District and that he and his wife have opted to have them engage in remote learning during the upcoming semester.
“Our concern is not so much for our children as it is for … public health,” he said.
The letter was sent to Ducey July 12; four days later, the governor announced he was maintaining his plan to have schools resume in-person learning Aug. 17.
“We are a group of healthcare providers from across the great state of Arizona,” the letter stated.
“Many of us are also parents of school-age children. We share a common concern: that the tremendous pressure to return to in-person schooling in August is ill-advised and dangerous given the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 in our community.”
Ducey’s decision followed increasing pressure from the White House to reopen schools in the fall.
On June 29, when most Arizona schools were scheduled to start the academic year in early August, Ducey signed an executive order delaying the beginning of in-school instruction until at least Aug. 17.
Most metro Phoenix school districts plan to begin the academic year virtually during the first half of August. Though there is no uniform plan in place, the majority of districts have offered families flexible plans that allow students the option to continue remote learning throughout the semester or transition to in-person or hybrid models as the academic year progresses.
