Trump Accused Of Suppressing CDC Data Showing School Openings Are Bad Idea

The head of one of the largest teachers' unions in the country has accused Donald Trump and his administration of attempting to bury an internal report from the CDC that clearly states that reopening schools in the fall will absolutely result in more infections and deaths than the country is currently experiencing. There are safe ways to reopen schools, but unfortunately we do not have the resources or skillset to implement the necessary precautions. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Randi Weingarten. The head of the American Federation of teachers has accused Donald Trump of attempting to suppress data from the centers for disease control and prevention that undermines his plan to reopen all the schools in this country in just a few short weeks. And according to all of the available data, including the data, Trump is not letting the CDC release. It looks like, uh, ms. Weingarten is 100% correct. Here's what happened last week. A report from the CDC was leaked to the New York times. This 69 page report very clearly lays out the fact that if we are to push forward right now with the reopening of our school systems, we are about to see a massive, massive spike in total number of infections and total number of new cases per day. And of course, as always follows total numbers of deaths. That is what the CDC is predicting.

If we go forward with Donald Trump's plan, because Trump has no safety plan in place, Betsy DeVos has no safety plan in place. School districts across the country. Don't really have safety plans in place. I know I'm married to a teacher, uh, you know, they, they, they get to do their zoom calls and I get to hear, I get to hear what, what they're saying and what they're going to do. It's fricking terrifying folks, and it's not their fault either. They do not have the tools necessary, the equipment necessary to safely reopen. So please don't take this as me attempting to, uh, you know, go after these school districts, they're doing everything they can. As far as I know, from what I have heard and not just this district, I've heard from other districts and other States, they're doing a lot to help reduce the spread, but it's not enough.

They don't have the money. They don't have the supplies. The supplies are already in short supply to an increase in demand. So they can't get them. And they're out of time. Many school districts in this country go back to school within a month, a month, uh, the County and the counties that are around me right now, we go back in less than a month. That is not enough time to put those plexiglass partitions in place in classrooms. That is not enough time to make sure that you have enough PPE on hand, not only for the teachers and the administration, but for the students who can't afford it or whose parents cannot find it for them, schools are being left without the resources they need. Does that sound familiar? Cause that's pretty much been the Republican plan for education for decades. Hey, you have to do these things.

Oh, and by the way, we're not going to give you what you need to be able to actually do those things. So then when you fail by design, we're going to call you in competent. We're going to cut your pay. We're going to talk shit about you. Every chance we get, because we set you up to fail and then we get to mock you for it. Except this time it's more than just failing test scores. This time it's teeny tiny body bags, small enough to hold a kindergartener. Let's be honest folks. That's what we're talking about here. That's what we're going to be dealing with. That's what we're going to have to talk to our own kids about a wise little Elizabeth, not in your class anymore.