Steve Hilton: There won't be a coronavirus recovery unless we reopen schools now

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There won't be a recovery from coronavirus in the U.S. unless we reopen schools now. If children can't go to school, parents can't go to work.

TRUMP SAYS SCHOOLS IN US SHOULD BE OPENED 'ASAP'

We're told schools must be closed to keep kids safe. But they're not in danger. According to CDC data, children under 18 make up only 2 percent of cases and 0.6 percent of hospitalizations. Children under 14 make up just 0.02 percent of deaths.

Now, the media misinformation machine is fear-mongering about a new mystery disease that affects children. Dr. Anthony Fauci cited this when pushing back on Rand Paul's demand to reopen schools this year. But we're talking about a handful of cases which are almost always treatable. How offensive to try and frighten parents about the safety of their children!

A more serious argument for school closures is that while children may not get sick themselves, they can infect others. But do they?

We are constantly told to follow the science and the data. Well, here it is. One study found, "Even if children do get infected, they are less likely to transmit the disease to others than adults. We have not found a single instance of a child infecting parents."

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They lecture us about contact tracing. Well, they did it for a boy with coronavirus. They found that even though he came into contact with 172 classmates and teachers while symptomatic, he didn't transmit the disease to any of them. Not one out of 172 people.

In Switzerland, the country's head of infectious disease says scientists, quote, "now know that young children don't transmit the virus." And because of all of this France, Israel, Germany, Greece, Portugal, South Korea and many other countries have already begun letting their children back into schools.

Two weeks after Denmark reopened their schools, a scientist in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Aarhus University said, "There are no signs whatsoever that the partial reopening has caused the biggest spread of infection."

Any leader anywhere in America who is not planning to reopen schools now -- not in the next few months, not in the fall, but <em>now</em> -- is a data denier and a science denier. Get on with it and reopen schools now before you do even more needless damage.

Yet still, the schools here are closed, even in states where bars and restaurants are reopening. Where in all of this is our own CDC, by the way? Why do we have to rely on scientists from Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland? Yet another reason for the bungler-in-chief, useless Dr. Robert Redfield, to go.

Meanwhile, the mental health toll on children grows by the day, as does the loss of learning. All of it is hurting the poorest areas most, especially those in remote parts of the country, with unreliable internet and the poorest families.

Any leader anywhere in America who is not planning to reopen schools now -- not in the next few months, not in the fall, but now -- is a data denier and a science denier. Get on with it and reopen schools now before you do even more needless damage.

But once we reopen schools and businesses, we can't have stupid regulations stifling the recovery. Masks, fine. But what's this unscientific nonsense about compulsory temperature checks? Totally pointless. You'll miss most people with coronavirus and catch many who don't have it.

These completely arbitrary social distancing rules -- 25 percent occupancy, 33 percent, 50 percent. What's it even based on? Only one or two people allowed in an elevator at one time? Good luck trying to reopen New York like that or any downtown business district, frankly.

This over-prescriptive regulation is typical of the infantilizing mindset of our technocratic ruling elite. If you boss people around with arbitrary rules, they'll resist. But ask people to behave responsibly with common sense, and they will. That's also why liability protection for employers who do the right thing is an essential part of any recovery package.

My next point: End this unjustified climate of fear. Thanks to media misinformation, too many Americans wrongly fear they are at risk from this virus. That's a disaster for the recovery because it stops people from getting back to real life.

Obviously, the best way to reduce public fear is a vaccine and effective treatment, and the Trump administration has done incredible work to speed up progress on both. But we urgently need the federal government -- perhaps even the wretched CDC can do something useful for a change -- to mount a scientific, data-driven information campaign to explain to Americans how low the risks really are for most people.

Two more things: The shutdown is decimating countless businesses, even whole industries. People might be getting ready to go back to a job that doesn't exist anymore. We've been a strong advocate of skills training on "The Next Revolution," and we've championed Ivanka Trump's efforts to give our workers the tools they need to succeed in the 21st Century.

Her work now will be even more important for the recovery, especially if it's accompanied by a huge new loan program to help people transition from unemployment to start their own business. That really would be a transition to greatness.

And I'll just end with this thought. One of the things I'm most proud of in my career is helping to set up national citizen service in the U.K., kind of non-military national service. I think something like that can make a huge difference here in America right now.

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People are looking for ways to help with the huge unemployment numbers. This would be a great way to bring the country together and unite people of different backgrounds. It would help in this moment, but would also be a fantastic legacy for the future.

Adapted from Steve Hilton's monologue from "The Next Revolution" on May 24, 2020.

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