Schools in Florida have been closed since March due to the coronavirus outbreak, but Governor Ron DeSantis is now mulling over the idea of reopening them in April.
“We’re going to look at the evidence and make a decision,” DeSantis told The Tampa Bay Times. “If it’s safe, we want the kids to be in school. … Even if it’s for a couple of weeks, we think there would be value in that.”
CNN noted that DeSantis said he didn’t think anyone younger than 25 had died from the virus.
“This particular pandemic is one where I don’t think nationwide there’s been a single fatality under 25,” he said at a meeting to discuss social distancing. “For some reason, it just doesn’t seem to threaten, you know, kids.”
DeSantis, who also deemed it necessary to keep churches open during the pandemic, said that influenza takes a higher toll, according to The Hill.
“And we lose in Florida between five and 10 kids a year for the flu,” DeSantis said. “This one, for whatever reason, much more dangerous if you’re 65 and plus than the flu, no doubt about that. If you’re younger, it just hasn’t had an impact. so that should factor into how we’re viewing this. I think the data on that has been 100 percent consistent. I haven’t seen any deviation on that.”
DeSantis made the comments while concluding a 75-minute education roundtable that was attended by parents, teachers, and government officials.
While coronavirus deaths among children do seem to be fewer, DeSantis doesn’t have his facts completely straight. Data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the disease has claimed the lives of four people between the ages of 15 and 24, and one child younger than age five has also died from the virus.
