By Irwin Redlener and Karen Redlener

I wanted to share my latest piece in The Hill, written by myself and my wife Karen, about the return of our nation’s 55 million children to school this fall. While we believe that it is imperative to get our kids back in the classroom and reduce the inequities of remote learning, we’re also worried about a few things.

First, the Delta variant has shown that it is more dangerous and infectious toward children, who are making up greater proportions of cases and hospitalizations. Secondly, fierce resistance to mask mandates and vaccinations has hampered efforts to protect children in school environments, particularly in Republican-led states. And thirdly, children are increasingly vulnerable due to the fact that most are ineligible for the vaccines as of today.

For our recommendations on how to best protect our children, while ensuring they can get back to school, read the full article here.

“While it is true that the majority at risk are children and those of us in states where community spread is high and vaccination rates are low, it would be foolish and naïve to assume that will remain the case for very long. SARS-CoV-2 has already taught us that it is wily and dangerous — and most of all, alarmingly unpredictable. 

Kids undoubtedly need to be back in school — but they also need us to do everything possible to ensure that the return to class is as safe as we can make it.

In essence, while getting children back to school is — and very well should be — one of the nation’s highest priorities, we have to proceed with caution. We must recognize that the pandemic is in a new and highly dangerous stage that puts children at far more risk than we had anticipated.”

And as always, please let me know if you have any comments or questions by tweeting me at @IrwinRedlenerMD.