Dr. Arnold also shared the Opposition Party's concern over the push by the Ministry of Education to resume in-class instruction. As we reported, face to face instruction was supposed to begin on Monday, but only 19 schools countrywide opened their doors.
By Dr. Arnold's analysis, if GOB forces this issue, the nation's schoolchildren will be at risk of becoming asymptomatic carriers of the COVID virus, which could then be transmitted to other members of their households. Here's how she explained why:
Dr. Shanika Arnold - Medical Professional
"Until we can effectively combat the current community spread, until we are able to decrease the number of new cases per day until we are able to decrease the number of hospitalizations and death, children returning to face to face instruction will only increase our individual and collective risk. We don't have a lot of these custom masks made for our children. They will be talking. They will be playing. They will be fidgeting, and so, we can't necessarily glue masks to their faces. Children are, by nature, social beings even more so than adults. They want to befriend other people. We might even have a situation where they start trading masks because mine is pink, and yours is green, and I want that one instead. And until we can get them to a point where we have these strict orders, or teachers understand what is required of them, what is required of children - our parents understand what is required of our children - so that they can, day to day, advise them, help them, and ask them about their day and ensure that they understand the importance of these particular procedures, then it puts us in a vulnerable position. While a child is a lot more resilient when it comes to infection, if they get it, well they come home. And grandma lives in the home too. The first thing that they're going to do when they get home is gone and kiss grandma. Then now, we have an elderly person who likely has a co-morbidity, who will end up in the hospital and potentially die, because we sent our child to school. Our children, as you quoted the statistics, are potentially our largest asymptomatic carrier population."
