Dr. Scott Gottlieb — former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner for President Donald Trump — is making it clear, the coronavirus pandemic is not only affecting adults.
CBS’ “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan noted Trump has said children are immune from the coronavirus and asked Gottlieb to confirm this is false.
“We need to have a degree of humility, children are not immune to this virus. We have seen bad outcomes. The CDC recently documented 570 cases of the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children,” Gottlieb said.
He added, “There’s more cases that are accruing. We’ve seen children die. There’s 86 kids who have died from this and thousands that have been hospitalized.”
Watch his comments below:
#Covid19 and Children: “We need to have a degree of humility, children are not immune from this virus,” @ScottGottlieb says, countering @realdonaldtrump's repeated inaccurate claims, noting that children have *died* from the #coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/wrbN262glq
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 9, 2020
Gottlieb explained if schools do reopen, and he believes they should, they need to be cautious about it.
During an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday, Trump claimed children are “almost immune” from COVID-19, as IJR previously reported.
The coronavirus claimed its youngest victim as a seven-year-old boy with no underlying health conditions has died in Georgia, as IJR previously reported.
Trump continues to push schools to reopen this fall.
He claimed the coronavirus “will go away like things go away.”
During an appearance on Fox News’ “American Newsroom” Thursday, White House counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway was pressed on Trump’s comments surrounding children.
When asked about statistics proving children can contract the coronavirus, Conway said, “Those are national numbers and not every state or even county or school district is the same.”
States are taking different approaches to reopening schools.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced Friday the reopening of all New York school districts for the fall.
New York City, the state’s largest school system, is scheduled to reopen on Sept. 10, according to reports.
It will become the only major district in the nation to reopen in person even part-time.