That article actually says it's "highest risk" according to the CDC website.[1]
> Since May, the C.D.C. website [link to 1] has cautioned that full reopening would be “highest risk,”
And from that site, we can see that it's not the highest risk among all possible ways of spreading COVID-19, it's simply the scenario with the highest risk of COVID-19 spread among 3 scenarios for schools: full reopening, virtual-only instruction, or:
> Small, in-person classes, activities, and events. Groups of students stay together and with the same teacher throughout/across school days and groups do not mix. Students remain at least 6 feet apart and do not share objects
I believe the CDC director is recommending something like that middle risk plan, and saying that the risk of spreading coronavirus under this plan is outweighed by the risks of having schools closed.
The problem is that the "public health consequences of having the schools closed on the kids" have not been defined, yet alone measured, and thus we have no basis for comparison against the fairly well-established risks of opening schools. The director is making a political statement based on hunches rather than evaluating risks based on science.
I agree that the CDC director should have given a lot more detail in his statement. The risks certainly haven't been explained to the public very well. But the experts seem to agree about the risks:
> The American Academy of Pediatrics' guidance "strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school."
> The American Academy of Pediatrics once again plunged into the growing debate over school reopening with a strong new statement Friday, making clear that while in-person school provides crucial benefits to children, "Public health agencies must make recommendations based on evidence, not politics." The statement also said that "science and community circumstances must guide decision-making."
> The AAP is changing tone from the guidance it issued just over two weeks ago. Then, the organization made a national splash by recommending that education leaders and policymakers "should start with a goal of having students physically present in school."
Yeah, the CDC is basically just saying that fully reopening schools carries higher risk of spreading Covid-19 than not doing so, which of course it does. The New York Times is carefully misleading people about this for nakedly partisan, anti-Trump ends. It's not the only bit of shady narrative-pushing in that article - notice how they also initially describe this information as coming from an internal CDC document and darkly hint that Trump might be supressing it so that he could push to reopen schools, before half-admitting that the same information has been on the CDC website since May deep into the article.
> Since May, the C.D.C. website [link to 1] has cautioned that full reopening would be “highest risk,”
And from that site, we can see that it's not the highest risk among all possible ways of spreading COVID-19, it's simply the scenario with the highest risk of COVID-19 spread among 3 scenarios for schools: full reopening, virtual-only instruction, or:
> Small, in-person classes, activities, and events. Groups of students stay together and with the same teacher throughout/across school days and groups do not mix. Students remain at least 6 feet apart and do not share objects
I believe the CDC director is recommending something like that middle risk plan, and saying that the risk of spreading coronavirus under this plan is outweighed by the risks of having schools closed.
1: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-...