Physicians warn of mental, educational toll on socially isolated young people

Los Angeles, CA – America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) today released an Issue Brief focused on the urgent need to reopen our nation’s schools. The document blames entrenched political and special interests for the ongoing crisis, and calls on states and localities to immediately take the necessary steps to provide universal classroom instruction for every family that wants it. The Issue Brief, called “Open Our Schools Now,” is available here.

Using publicly reported data from the Centers for Disease Control, American Academy of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Association, and others, the Issue Brief makes the case that protracted school closures have done more harm than good and that scientific evidence supports schoolchildren returning to the classroom. Well-funded teachers unions have largely been successful in keeping schools closed by weaponizing science for their political ends. According to public health data organized by the COVID-19 School Response Dashboard, less than 1% of teachers and students have been infected in schools that have reopened.

“The rise in suicides, depression, anxiety, and other mental-health crises in districts across the country makes safe school reopening not only an educational imperative but a medical emergency,” said AFLDS member-physicians. “Children learn best when they are educated in the physical environment of the classroom, and threatening strikes and locking schools down during the pandemic is not a course backed by science. As physicians with firsthand experience treating patients on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe that sound science is on the side of reopening our classrooms. The time to act is now.”

Read the AFLDS Issue Brief, “Open Our Schools Now,” on their website.