Us. Thank you for joining us. Doctor, tell us why your Group Tell Us believe that the lockdown approach is completely utterly wrong . Well, i think theres some parts of it that makes sense. There are we have to some people are vul 234esh8 and we have to protect them. Scientific fact is that there are a wide range of responses to covid19 infection and some groups are vulnerable to mortality where others are less vulnerable. A risk that a child faces, something on the order of one in a hundred,000 of mortality to someone over 70, which may be as high as four or five in a hundred mortality, so the idea of the policy is it should take that into account. That the other idea thats really important and this is something that gets really little play. The harms from these lockdowns are absolutely devastating. Not just in economics but also in health. For instance, youre in a lockdown. Weve seen people who skipped cancer treatments, who skipped diabetes management treatments that they skipped their imizations for their children. Cancer mortality, were going to see rises in a host of medical conditions that sort of had some ,000 we made progress against. Theres psychological things also are enormous. In june of this year cdc estimated that one in four young adults had serious 18 to 24 seriously considered suicide, one in four. The harms are absolutely shock nationally but even internationally theyre worse. The u. N. Estimates that 130 Million People worldwide face risk from starvation. We shoonltd take these lightly. The health costs now by focussing just on covid, were sort of ignoring these cost to a large extent. At the same time there are people who are slul neshl, older people, weave said. In many may way, weve exposed them. Youre 673, 64, a clerk, deemed essential, we dont give you any basically say go out and take risks. We kneed an opgs opposite policy. A policy of focus protection. Dwoelt all the resources we can to protect the vulnerable. Well talk about that in a minute. At the same time, let pem who are not at groisk on with their lives so they dont face enormous lockdown theyre facing toads. I wants to explore how you could let the people who have less risk, minimal risk, smaller risk go out there and get about with their lives. I want for ask you. You had this belief and youve come together, i think about 191,000 people so far signed this antilockedown declaration. Youre getting signers. Tell us how did that idea come about and also the name, the great barington declaration . Sure so the idea came about in conversation with a couple of my colleagues whos one of them, two cosigners. One of them is martin coldorf of harvard and one of the most premier doctors from objectixfo university. Lockdowns were costly, that they were in terms of health and that the that there was a better way to minimize overall mortality, not just covid mortality. Overall mortality. Barington, theres a town in massachusetts where we met where we came together to talk about how to talk about our ideas and put together a statement about whats the what those ideas are. We put them on the web so that people can see them and weve had an enormous response from experts around the world, Public Health experts, doctors, as well as just regular people. So what are you hoping . That you will influence decision makers, states, for example, are you hoping that schools will reopen immediately . What do you hope will happen . Yeah. I think thats the basic idea. So for schools, for instance, yeah, absolutely. We want to influence policy. Else theres no purpose in talking about this the schools are a good example of this. Someone is 63 or 60 and is a teacher, theyre vulnerable. Schools should make some accommodation for people who are in those vulnerable conditions so that should they get infect sod that they dont have to face the risk of getting infected. On the other hand, younger teachers could teach with, you know with very little in the way of protection safely. In sweden, for instance, they have been teaching inperson under 15 since the lockdown with 1. 8 million children in attendance, no masks, no restrictions, really, with zero deaths and two hospitalizations among the children. Sort of communitylevel spread 3407k the teachers. I think we can do better than sweden. Im glad you brought up sweden, because theres some who say swooend lane effective. They took a much more open approach than their neighbors next door. They have higher rates. One of the arguments that the children are not generally devastated in terms of their own health but as carriers who could carry it to their grnd parents, what about their lifes . First, theres a lot of evidence that children are ineffective spreaders of the disease. Overwhelming Scientific Evidence. The United States is unique in keeping schools closed. As far as like passing it on to grandparents, i think thats an important conversation. Something thats hard address. You can be you have to be creative about it. Depends on the local conditions that you face. For instance, some ideas might include if youre working in a workplace where you can use disability laws to provide accommodations so that you dont have to the teach or you like to have to get exposed in person. You when theres someone thats symptomatic in your house or community is high ruck provide hotels which have been used as a prays for people to go while the spread high. I think all kinds of Creative Things you can do protect the vulnerable thats a really important part of this idea. At the same time, not letting children or schools is a devastating thing for kids. Kids get nutrition through schools. Almost a third of American Kids have most of their calories subs diced in schools. Abuse is picked up in schools. Psychologically, its not good for children not to have the kind of socialization that an inperson school provides. Those are the effects of it. Weve deprived our children of sort of what we owe them. As a mom of two kids, i agree. Theres a psychological and mental toll it takes on them. I do want to ask you. If you look at what california has done, with tiered reopenings, every time we open up a little month you saw an increase in the number of cases, so how can we, you know open up more without leading to more cases . Is that are you talk you can about let the schools open but there are other sectors of the economy you would hold back based on risk . The Scientific Evidence says that some cases are really dangerous and other cases are not. If right metric is mortality. Just to say, lierveg the evidence on schooling School Openings is that from around the world is that they have a limited role in explaining epidemic spread. So thats the evidence what you used to describe is not indicative from around the world. That aside. Even if there were more cases among kids, just this year alone there have been more deaths in school from covid than there have been flu. Out of line with the other kinds of dangers they face. I think that spread is not the issue. The issue is how do you protect the vul dmeshl in the context of that . I think actually to some extent california does all right. We havent not had the high death rates that the pacific northeast saw among the elderly. I think we could do better. I think closing schools down on the basis of a small rise from cases, even a large rise in cases among people who are not likely to be die from the disease, ignores the cost that it imposes on children for not having inperson schooling. Not just inperson schooling but the other effects of lockdown. Doctor, this was an interesting conversation. I recognize there are nuances and sometimes people like to paints things in black and white. On this show we like to hear things from all sides. I appreciate you coming on to shaffer yourselves. The great barington declaration, an antilockdown movement thats gaining some momentum. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Appreciate the conversation. All right, folks. Were going to take a short brake on the air. Heres whats happening on the bay bridge right now. A big accident is causing our colleagues having trouble coming into san francisco. This was just past the toll plaza. The back u. S. Open around Treasure Island area. A car spun out, hit four other weeks, so multi vehicles involved. One lane still closed. Abc7news is focussing on building a better bay area education this week we want to have some more conversations regarding that as more schools begin to reopen, theyre look for data on how other schools have fared. Are kids proving to be spreaders, are they spared, whats the impact in terms of social and emotional health. Joining us is dr. Kimberly berens coming to us from new york. I have want to ask you, because youre east scientist and an educate or. Any strong evidence that it leads to jumps in covid cases in communities . Dr. Mark alley last week said early data suggests no here but our nushs have been on the decline. What are you seeing out there . Well, you know, again, it varies. And i want to be clear. Im not a medical doctor or an epidemiologist. I can report that weve had a private school thats pretty close my office. You know they had some case that is had to close and other schools havent had that occur, so you know, the difficulty with this is its kind of random in the sense of whos been exposed and whos bringing it into the school to spread it around in the school. So i think thats one of the difficulties with all of this in terms of doing this like from a scientific perspective is that were getting a lot of variable data with respect to pref dense occurring in some communities and not others. I think that this is clearly related to how the General Community is handling this. You know, im from new york and we have a governor that was really very clear with respect to restrictions, so we have mask guidelines. We have social distancing guide looijs. We still have most of our facilities arent open at capacity so were not we dont have a widespread or increasing prevalence in general, and so i think the pattern of prevalence in a community is most likely going to mimic that occurs in a school. So i think we have to consider whats going on in the Greater Community when we think about how that impacts schools reopening. What about kids and their Mental Health . Weve seen evidence that Distance Learning is taking a toll on them. What can we as parents do to be supportive. You authored a book called blind spots. When it comes to virtual instruction, it doesnt mean it has to be effective. Weve been providing Virtual Learning experiences for kids since 2015 using zoom. Actually, that was skype, 2016 were using zoom. Effective classroom instructiinstruction whether its line or on line and that depends on how teachers are engaging schools. In an online class kids need to be engargeds. The more teachers are presenting questions and giving the class the opportunity to respond in unison, thats really important. When you think about a zoom situation when kids are more likely to be distracted, at home, they have their phones to the side. Look at tiktok on a separate screen. Theres a lot of ways for kids to be distracted. Its more important for teachers to really engage by letting the entire class respond in unison rather than have one kid raise their hand. Theres a lot of evidence that that model of instruction, which actually is called direct instruction, is the most effective way to produce stient engagement and learning of lessons. I think now were in this situation its more important for teachers to be more aware of that method and use it in their classroom, even if its virtual. Heres a question from one of our viewers. How can teachers reach out to students who are overwhelmed . Right. I think thats really important. Not only the communication between a teacher and her students, but the communication between a parent and the teacher, so you know, i think one of the most important things parents can do is have, you know, an open source of Authentic Communication with deemps. Teachers may even be unaware of how a students feeling represent to a class. It may be more difficult for a teacher to glean how a childs responding or engaging or not engaging in the class. I think parents need to be aware of this. If you are work at hemoand if you have your child in an online class, carve outs some time to stand there and see if your child is engaging, are they distracted, number one, you can set limits and provide incentives and rewards for acting, engagement and lessons. Also, you can be aware of how your child is responding. I67 think its important for the teacher to be able to do smuler groups, maybe smaller pods. Having 30 kids on a zoom class, thats a lot. Maybe clus tering kids depending on how well they are sponldsing to classes. I know thats a big ask. Maybe have breakout rooms so they have nor contacts with kids, especially those who arent responding well. That line is really important and maybe teamers having the flexibility to have break out session and work with smaller groups at a time. All right, dr. Kimberly berens. Sounds like theres opportunities for us now as well. Arthur of the book blind and the fit learning system. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. All right. Were going to take a short break now. When we return well tell you the latest on the car crash on the bay bridge. You have want me to do that now . Were going to take a break but first, you can see across the bay bridge, toll plaza, jam packed, slowly letting cars back on. Only one lane blocked at this point due to wean air force veteran made of doing whats right,. Not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. Because doing right by our members, thats whats right. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa remote slerng a challenge for all teachers, students and parents. A berkeley writer, illustrator and plom of two has put our anxieties into a comic. Joining us are aubry hirsch. Tell us your situation. Youre a mama, too how old are the kids, how are they attending school . I have a kinlder gardner and a second grader and theyre attending via zoom. At that age where they love sitting down in front of a computer for hours. Not. Lets look at your comic. This is an article you wrote on fox. Com. Walk us through it. I find interesting that you alternatingly draw yourself as a seerp hero mom or or or or or whats a typical day . The kids have their separate but unfortunately simultaneous zoom meetings so trying to go back and fort between one and the other and getting snacks and tracking down the links and make sure devices are charged. Theres always some technological snafu on the teachers side or our side or the internet breaks or the link isnt in the right google folder. Theyre all these different logins. Its a lot. You seem to be spending a lot of time taking pictures of your kids work, uploading sthoem your teachers can see them, is that right . Yeah. Theres a lot of taking pictures of masks with myself on torques then email to myself and upload to clever or seesaw or whatever. Franticly tried to print the worksheet which involves partially disassembling my computer. So youre doing this while youre working. Youre a writer, so are you at a breaking point, the woman signature on the couch sitting down or are ah superhero . I would say it varies from day to day. I have think the superhero metaphor, i was trying to offload that its a bit dangerous. Hi think people are spending a lots of time telling parents and moms youre a superhero. New york city im no. Help us, please were really not super heroes. Were doing the best we can but this is really hard. So given that, what kinds of a pledge you trying to send if there is a plea . Is it about better childcare . Is it about more attention to kids who are zoom learning when theyre young . Whats your best message . I think for right now, the best thing that if youre someone who works in a school or a district, the best thing you can do to relax a parent is to demonstrate your flexibility. Just to acknowledge that this is really hard and totally unsustainable and totally impossible for some people and that were all doing our best and that that can be good enough for now. We are all doing our best. Thats got to be good enough for now. Thank you so much. Really appreciate your time and enjoyed your comments. Keep us posted. And were back. We now have the time to play you also oh, sorry we dont have the time out of time thank you for joining us on getting answer. Well be here every day at 3 00 answering your questions. We have the latest on the crash. Its fully cleared. Todays other top stories is coming up on with developing stories as we come on the air. President trumps doctor now says the president has tested negative on consecutive days. The allout sprint now, 22 days until election day. The president s doctor says the president testing negative, using abbott rapid testing. Those tests and other measurements, the doctor says, mean the president is, quote, not infectious to others. Tonight, the president now on his way to florida, a huge crowd gathering, few masks. Joe biden, meanwhile tonight, in the battleground of ohio. Three weeks left amid new poll numbers tonight. Where this race stands. And the new message late today from dr. Anthony fauci to the Trump Campaign about using fauci in that ad. And the images coming in now, the major turnout on the first day of early voting in a key state. Also tonight, the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for