Dr. Anthony Fauci acknowledged Tuesday that closing schools for months during the COVID pandemic was a “mistake,” a setback for the former presidential chief medical adviser who became influential in the country’s response to the disease.
Fauci, 83, was a top member of the White House COVID teams of the Trump and Biden administrations and frequently appeared alongside former President Donald Trump at briefings. The immunologist also led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the first two years of the pandemic.
Fauci admitted this during an interview on CBS Mornings, saying that while initially closing schools was the right decision, keeping children out of classrooms for so long was a mistake.
“I think what was not a mistake was the actual shutdown, because when we had a 15-day shutdown to flatten the curve, we were in a tsunami of cases. Right here in New York there were freezer trucks in front of Elmhurst Hospital,” Fauci said.
Fauci said “closing everything immediately… even schools was the right thing to do.”
“The problem was how long it lasted because there was a disparity across the country,” he said.
Fauci also defended his own record, saying he urged states and counties to “close the bars, open the schools, open the schools as quickly and safely as possible.”
“But initially closing it was the right thing to do,” he said. “Keeping it up for a year was not a good idea.”
“So that was a mistake in retrospect? Won’t we repeat it? the CBS anchor asked.
“Absolutely, yes,” Fauci responded.
Previously, Fauci had warned that school closures could be necessary, even those that would last months.
.@JudyWoodruff: Are we looking at many months of virtual learning before schools can safely open across the country?
Dr. Anthony Fauci: “In some places, Judy, that may be the case.” pic.twitter.com/fVgss0y4ol
– PBS News (@NewsHour) August 13, 2020
4/8/20 Fauci on schools:
“There may be some areas where the level of the virus is so high that it would be unwise to bring children back to school.”
In the clip, he supports Zoom education and closing schools in areas with COVID transmission. Fauci has never been in favor of a full reopening. pic.twitter.com/eORstr2Lf8
– Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.today (@JordanSchachtel) November 30, 2020
In August 2020, PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff asked Fauci if the country faced “many months of virtual learning” before schools could safely open across the country.
“In some places, Judy, that may be the case,” Fauci responded. “If you want your schools to open, lower the level in your community, to a safe level.”
Also that month, Fauci said: “There may be some areas where the level of the virus is so high that it would not be wise to bring children back to school.”
School closures caused massive learning loss nationwide among K-12 students in public schools.
In 2022, eighth graders earned the lowest scores on record in American history and among the lowest scores in civics, according to the Department of Education. Only about 13% of eighth graders met proficient standards in U.S. history last year, and only about one-fifth of students were proficient or better in civics.
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According to the department, math and reading scores have also been affected during the pandemic. Math scores have plummeted among fourth- and eighth-graders in nearly every state, and reading scores have also plunged nationwide, erasing the past three decades of progress.
Many students returned to classrooms last year reading at the same level as when the pandemic began, leaving them two grades behind. A study last year suggested that students lost about 35% of their learning from a typical school year, starting when remote learning began.
In early 2021, a CDC study showed “little evidence that schools have contributed significantly to the increase in community transmission.”
However, many schools remained closed for the rest of that year thanks to teachers unions, which fought against reopening.
The learning loss caused by many months of remote learning prompted parents across the country to demand that schools return to in-person learning, especially after data showed children were at low risk for severe cases of COVID.
Some parents even ran for school board seats and won, hoping to stop learning loss in their communities.
