Dr. Fine Raises Concerns About Return to School Due to Delta Variant and RI’s High Transmission Rate
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Dr. Michael Fine is raising concerns about the return to schools as Rhode Island’s transmission rate of the coronavirus remains high.
In 2020, then-Governor Gina Raimondo barred school districts from reopening if the community has a transmission rate of about 100 cases per 100,000 per week. Three schools systems were not allowed to return to the classroom full-time — Providence, Central Falls, and Pawtucket.
In 2021, the statewide transmission rate as of August 30 is now 201 cases per 100,000— more than twice the state's standard for closing in-school learning in 2020.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“I would be more comfortable if we all waited 'till community transmission was less than 35 new cases per 100 000 per week or at least less than 100 new cases per hundred thousand,” said Fine in an interview on GoLocal LIVE.
The dominant Delta variant is four times as contagious as the Alpha variant that hit Rhode Island in 2020.
“If I were a parent that's what I’d want to see -- I'd want to make sure my child masks and, you know, if there were going to be fewer in-person hours in the beginning, I wouldn't mind that,” said Fine.
“I would be counting the moments before my child can get immunized and all the other kids in the class are immunized and i would be counting the moments until we make it a requirement that every single child is immunized in order to protect everybody," said Fine.
Rhode Island has not required that teachers or staff are vaccinated.
Vaccine for Under 12
Dr. Scott Gottlieb expects U.S. drug regulators to clear the Pfizer Covid vaccine for emergency use in children ages 5 to 11 in late fall or early winter of this year.
“The application probably isn’t going to be submitted until some point in October,” said Gottlieb, who headed the FDA from 2017 to 2019 under President Donald Trump.
“If the FDA sticks to its normal timeline, in terms of how it reviews these applications, you would expect that review to be a four-to-six week review for a potentially emergency use authorization, so that puts you on a timeline where you’re late fall, early winter,” Gottlieb said during a “Squawk Box” interview on CNBC.
Education Leaders Are Trying to Assure Parents About the Safety of the Return to the Classroom
Meanwhile, school districts in Rhode Island -- such as Little Compton -- are working to ease any family concerns.
"We’re excited to welcome our Little Compton students back for another great year of in-person learning at Wilbur McMahon School," said Dr. Laurie Dias-Mitchell, Superintendent. “Working with the Rhode Island Department of Education and the Rhode Island Department of Health, we have a comprehensive safety plan in place to mitigate exposure to COVID-19. Similar to last school year, that plan includes universal masking, social distancing, and testing.”
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