Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that he and officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are aware of the study that shows that three feet of social distancing may “indeed” be enough to safely reopen schools, adding that officials at the CDC may be issuing new guidance on schools “soon.”
“What the CDC wants to do, is they want to accumulate data and when the data shows that there is an ability to be three feet, they will act accordingly,” Fauci said on CNN. “They’re analyzing that and I can assure you within a reasonable period of time, quite reasonable, they will be giving guidelines according to the data that they have,” he added.
Fauci, who has been the Director at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, was responding to a new study conducted over 16 weeks on hundreds of Massachusetts school districts that examined whether the virus is more likely to be transmitted if students are seated close together.
Fauci said the CDC is “very well aware that data are accumulating making it look more like three feet are okay under certain circumstances.” He added that he speaks to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky ”every single day,“ and that officials are aware of the data and will be issuing new guidelines to reopen schools ”within a reasonable period of time.”
The study looked at 251 school districts, close to 540,000 students, and nearly 100,000 staff who attended in-person instruction during a 16-week period–and found no significant difference in the number of COVID-19 cases reported under three feet of social distancing, as opposed to six feet.
On Friday, the Biden administration released a five-step plan to reopen schools, assigning the CDC and other federal agencies “with establishing basic, objective criteria to guide state, tribal, and local officials in deciding if and how reopening can be managed safely in their communities.