Read on Twitter
1/One of the key scientific claims in the CDC guidance is that the risk of school opening is tied to COVID community spread. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-research/transmission_k_12_schools.html
2/This understandably surprised some people! I sympathize with Jake Tapper here when he was like 'I thought The Science said we should open the schools!"
3/The Narrative has really flattened some of the nuance in this conversation. Often times we dropped the "if" in "schools can safely open if..."
4/ In fact there have been two major studies finding at least some evidence that the safety of school reopening is connected to community spread. (Although I would say it's not definitive and of course We Need Better Data.) https://www.chalkbeat.org/2021/1/4/22214312/covid-spread-schools-research
5/So it is not correct that there is no basis for linking reopening to community spread, as has been suggested. That is a *separate* question from whether the CDC set the right thresholds for greater precautions.
6/6 On that question the experts I talked to said the bar seemed too conservative. I would like to hear more from the CDC about how they set these benchmarks. https://www.chalkbeat.org/2021/2/12/22280017/new-cdc-guidance-open-schools
