Dr. Fine Warns That Teachers Over 50 Face Real Health Threat From Coronavirus in Schools

Dr. Fine Warns That Teachers Over 50 Face Real Health Threat From Coronavirus in Schools

Dr. Michael Fine — the former Rhode Island Director of Health — says that the risk to children going back to school this fall is minimal, but the risk to teachers — especially those over 50 years of age — is real.

Both President Donald Trump and Governor Gina Raimondo have been aggressively pushing a return to the classroom.

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“The most important thing we do is educate our kids and the truth is that the risk to kids is very very small for each child.  The risks to people over 50 are real,” said Fine on Friday on GoLocal LIVE.

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“And so you know one of the things we can't seem to do is figure out a way to approach this differentially by age,” said Fine.

“I myself am not comfortable thinking about people over 50 in a classroom right now. I'm also not comfortable thinking about kids not in a classroom and so how you merge this is a little unclear to me,” said Fine.

Rhode Island has the fifth-highest number of deaths per capita in the United States, recording more than 1,000 deaths in four months. Nationally, more than 145,000 Americans have died.

 

Some Children Will Die from Coronavirus

“I want to just make one small point about children. My colleagues are exactly right that there is minimal risk to kids but what everybody's got to be mentally prepared for and this is probably not the most popular thing to say is that as the number of cases goes into the many millions, we will eventually start to see some pediatric deaths,” said Fine. “As we do from flu each year and you know everybody's got to look that in the face because it's a real thing.”

Fine said the disease will continue to be deadly as the number of cases continues to spiral. "We lose 100 to 300 kids a year from influenza -- those are disasters but they happen and that doesn't keep kids out of school. So I think it's smarter to start talking about the likely reality that that happens and start talking about that likely reality now."

Five children have recently died in Florida from the virus.

Presently, as GoLocal first reported on Friday, one nursing home in Rhode Island is facing a major outbreak with 25-29 cases breaking out.