Dr. William Schaffner Predicts Schools Will Reopen in ‘Modified Form’

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Dr. William Schaffner, M.D., a professor of medicine at the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University and the medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, forecasted that school and universities would reopen in a “modified form,” offering his analysis on Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host John Binder.

On Monday, President Donald Trump tweeted, “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!”

Mansour asked, “Why can’t kids go to school? Children and little kids have the easiest luck with [COVID-19]. Why do we have to keep schools closed?”

Schaffner replied, “I’m not sure we’re going to keep the schools closed. That was our first attempt before we learned that this virus really didn’t affect children all that much. My prediction is that schools are generally going to be open, universities will be open, and all of them will open in some modified form. It will vary across the country, but I think that’s part of opening up.”

LISTEN:

“We know that the COVID virus affects older persons much more severely than younger people,” noted Schaffner. “We don’t know the answer to why that is.”

Breitbart News reported in March that at least 10,600 schools had been closed or were scheduled to close in the U.S. in response to the coronavirus outbreak. A Wall Street Journal report in June described remote learning approaches deployed in recent months as creating a “learning slide,” falling short of the efficacy of conventional classroom pedagogy.

Breitbart News Sunday broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.

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