Trump criticizes Dr. Fauci for urging caution in reopening schools and suggests Fauci exaggerated the risk coronavirus poses to children

• President Donald Trump said he "totally disagrees" with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who cautioned against reopening schools as the virus continues to spread.
• "We have to get the schools open, we have to get our country open, we have to open our country," Trump told Fox News on Wednesday.
• The president advocated for kids to go back to school before a vaccine or therapeutic treatment is widely available and suggested that Fauci had exaggerated the threat posed to children.
• During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Fauci said officials shouldn't be "cavalier" about covid-19's impact on children and pointed to new, disturbing cases of children contracting a deadly inflammatory syndrome.
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President Donald Trump said he "totally disagrees" with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease specialist, over the risk posed by the coronavirus to children and how that impacts schools reopening this fall.

The president advocated for kids to go back to school before a vaccine or therapeutic treatment is widely available and suggested that Fauci, who's helping lead the administration's coronavirus response, had exaggerated the threat posed to children.

"We have to get the schools open, we have to get our country open, we have to open our country," Trump told Fox News on Wednesday. "You're having bedlam already in the streets, you can't do this. We have to get it open. I totally disagree with him on schools."

During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Fauci said officials shouldn't be "cavalier" about covid-19's impact on children, who have generally experienced much lower rates of death and severe illness after contracting the virus.

He mentioned new cases of children contracting a deadly, unknown inflammatory syndrome similar to Kawasaki disease and linked to COVID-19, adding that officials shouldn't assume that children will be safe from the worst effects of the virus.

"We don't know everything about this virus, and we really better be very careful, particularly when it comes to children," Fauci said.

Trump rebuked his adviser's statement and insisted that the virus is much more dangerous for older people and those with underlying health conditions.

"I was surprised by his answer actually because to me it's not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools," the president told reporters on Wednesday. "This is a disease that attacks age. And it attacks health. And if you have a heart problem, if you have diabetes, if you're a certain age it's certainly much more dangerous. But with the young children and students, just take a look at the statistics, it's pretty amazing."

—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 13, 2020

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