Custodian Tracy Harris cleared a chair in a classroom at Brubaker Elementary School on July 8 in Des Moines, Iowa. Charlie Neibergall / AP
Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that guidelines for reopening schools would not be revised, but additional reference documents would be provided.
“Our guidelines are our guidelines, but we will provide additional reference documents to help communities who are basically trying to open K-through-12,” Redfield told Good Morning America on Thursday. “This is not a revision of the guidelines; it is only to provide additional information to help schools use our guidelines. “
Responding to comments about guidelines that are too difficult or impractical, Redfield said this depends on how the guidelines were put together.
“At present, we continue to work with local jurisdictions on how they want to take the portfolio of guidelines that we have provided to make it practical for their schools to be reopened,” he said.
Redfield described the guidelines as “intentionally non-prescriptive,” and said that the various guidelines provided were to offer schools choices about what was best for them.
Redfield said the CDC would work with local jurisdictions about the best way to use the guidelines to reopen their schools in the safest way, and that it would “personally make him sad” if people used the guidelines and concerns about them as an excuse to remain closed.
“This is a critical public health initiative now to reopen these schools and do them safely,” Redfield said.
Some contexts: Redfield’s comments came the day after President Trump tweeted Wednesday that he disagrees with the CDC guidelines for reopening schools safely because they are “very tough” and “expensive.”
In a press conference a few hours later, Vice President Mike Pence said the CDC would issue new guidelines on reopening schools next week. Both he and the CDC director said that agency recommendations should not be seen as a barrier to returning children to the classroom.
