CDC Director Robert Redfield sparks outrage after he says teachers are ‘essential workers’

CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield says teachers are ‘critical workers’ who may need to continue showing up to schools even after possible exposure to COVID-19. 

In a telebriefing on Friday, Redfield praised the profession and stressed the importance of educators as classrooms across the country reopen for in-person learning amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

‘I would just underscore how important our teachers are. I mean, their vocation is extremely important,’ the top doctor stated. 

He added: ‘You know they didn’t need to be formally recognized as critical infrastructure workers, because I think we all know they are.’

Schools in several states have already been forced to close just days into the 2020-2021 academic year after students and faculty tested positive to COVID-19. 

Dozens of educators are now spending 14-days in self-isolation as a precautionary measure.  

But when quizzed on whether teachers should continue showing up to work after possible exposure to the virus, Redfield told the teleconference that the decision would ‘have to be worked out on a school-by-school, local-community-by-local-community’.

According to Yahoo, Redfield then ‘drew a parallel to being a physician, a vocation in which individuals have had to ‘stay in the arena’ — implying that teachers may need to do the same as well.’

During the teleconference, the doctor ultimately claimed that schools would need the ‘confidence of teachers that it’s safe for them to go back and do their job’. 

Redfield’s assertion that teachers are essential workers echoes The White House’s claim earlier this week.  

The Trump administration has been pushing schools to reopen for in-person learning. 

However, teacher’s unions have blasted the move, saying it puts staff and students at considerable risk. 

In a statement, the National Education Association told Yahoo: ‘If the Trump administration truly valued educators, it would have listened to their concerns months ago about safety and it wouldn’t be blocking another desperately needed coronavirus relief package that could provide schools with what they need to safely and equitably continue educating students during this pandemic’.

‘Instead, this administration is trying to extort educators into a [reckless] reopening that risks lives.’ 

Meanwhile, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten,, told Yahoo: ‘Teachers are and always have been essential workers — but not essential enough, it seems, for the Trump administration to commit the resources necessary to keep them safe in the classroom. 

‘Rather than fund these protections, formulate a plan and issue guidance to ensure school buildings can reopen safely and follow the science, it changes the rules to threaten, bully and coerce.’

Redfield’s teleconference comes after he touted data that showed daycare centers had safely reopened in Rhode Island. 

A CDC report found that the state was able to reopen day care programs in the summer without high rates of coronavirus spread. 

Out of the state’s 666 programs that opened, there were 52 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 at 29 centers.

Just 13 percent – four facilities – had outbreaks in which children or adults spread the virus to others.  

t Redfield held the study up as an example that could be replicated across the country.

He told reporters on a media call that the findings indicate there is a path ‘to get these childcare programs to reopen, which are very important for our country.’ 

Redfield did not say that daycare centers and schools were similar in terms of the transmission of the virus. 

However, many others have stated that the spread of COVID-19 among children is low, and schools should therefore reopen as normal. 

The United States is struggling to stem the spread of the deadly virus.

As of Saturday, more than 5.6 million Americans have tested positive to COVID-19, and 175 350 have died.