Famed Pandemic Expert Sounds Alarm for Returning to School
Dr. Peter Marghella, a renowned expert in global pandemics was on the KGVO Talk Back program once again on Wednesday and offered little in the way of encouragement in the way the United States has been handling the COVID 19 pandemic.
Marghella said the emphasis has departed from the coronavirus itself to the politicalization of the pandemic.
“We have so polarized the United States with this fractiousness that now exists in this country where the virus and this current pandemic is almost a secondary event,” said Dr. Marghella. “It’s all relative to the polarization that has been set up that sets up citizen against citizen and truth against disinformation.”
Dr. Marghella related a tragic incident in which the difference between fact and fiction literally involved life and death.
“I was struck by a comment that was made in somewhere between absolute stark terror and absolute surprise to a nurse by a patient,” he said. “He said, and I quote, ‘I thought this was all a hoax. I didn’t think this was real. I never would have thought I would be in this place.’ Then, he died.”
Regarding the plan to return children to school in the traditional classroom setting, Dr. Marghella has revised numbers.
I would urge as a public health professional and preparedness professional that the people who are making those decisions will base them on the evidence, and make decisions that err on the side of safety and survivability of our most beloved population and that is our children
“There’s a very, very significant increase in the number of cases not only in the 18 to 55 demographic, but we’re also seeing a significant increase in the number of pediatric cases that started off with the onset of M-Sys, a multi-system inflammatory syndrome that had a high level of mortality with kids as young as one years old,” he said.
Dr. Marghella said considering all the mitigating factors, he offered this comment on sending children back to school.
“I get the issue of the economy, the engine moving forward; I get the issue of children and people all the way up through high school and colleges having to return to school and the education process, but I would urge as a public health professional and preparedness professional that the people who are making those decisions will base them on the evidence, and make decisions that err on the side of safety and survivability of our most beloved population and that is our children.”
Dr. Marghella has been on the Talk Back program three times since the pandemic was first part of the news cycle.
Access the podcast with Dr. Marghella here.