In a tweet yesterday, rejected former Congresswoman Claudia Tenney suggested that schools should re-open soon because “children attended school in the pre vaccine era for over a century.” The ill-timed tweet was sent as New York health officials continue investigating 100 cases of a “rare and dangerous inflammatory syndrome” afflicting children that could be connected to COVID-19.
And while of course Tenney isn’t wrong about children attending school during the pre-vaccine era, she completely ignores the basic facts that before vaccines, rates of infectious diseases were much higher, life expectancy was lower, and fatal illnesses frequently spread among children. And even during past pandemics, like the flu epidemic in 1918, stay-at-home orders were practiced.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases warned Senators that reopening schools too soon could set states like New York back, saying: “We’re really not talking about treating a student who gets ill, but how the student will feel safe in going back to school,” he said. “If this was a situation where we had a vaccine, that would be the end of that issue, in a positive way. But even at the top speed we’re going, we don’t see a vaccine playing in the ability of individuals to get back to school this term.”
“Seems like Claudia Tenney should be prudent and listen to science and medical experts, instead of encouraging an unnecessary return to the days before modern medicine when children were at great risk,” said DCCC Spokesperson Christine Bennett.
###