Coronavirus: Trump pushes school re-openings by insisting children 'virtually immune'

'This thing's going way. it will go away like things go away, and my view is schools should reopen'

Donald Trump has claimed children are “virtually immune” to the novel coronavirus while pushing for schools to reopen nationwide amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The president repeated his assertion that young people do not suffer severe symptoms associated with Covid-19 during a Wednesday morning interview on the network’s morning show, Fox & Friends. He also noted that older teachers "shouldn't be going in" during the pandemic, or as he put it: "Until this thing goes by."

It’s a talking point Mr Trump has used in several recent interviews while demanding schools open for in-person classes throughout the fall, even as many states across the country face a reemergence of the novel virus, which has already killed at least 155,000 Americans, according to daily tracking data.

He previously said children were "virtually immune" on Tuesday night during an interview with Lou Hobbs, though he has not offered any evidence to back the assertion.

Meanwhile, growing evidence indicates young people do, in fact, suffer from severe cases of Covid-19, with some survivors reporting extensive complications that have lasted far longer than the typical two-week window in which many patients show signs of infection.

“You know, young people, they have better immune systems than we do, Lou, I hate to tell you this,” Mr Trump said. “They are in very good shape. Virtually, virtually immune from this disease.”

On Wednesday morning, the president also repeated false claims that his administration inherited “nothing” from that of his predecessor, Barack Obama, when it came to critical supplies to battle the pandemic, like ventilators. There were an estimated 19,000 ventilators in the national stockpile by the time Mr Trump took office.

He continued to put the claim about young people and the coronavirus throughout the interview, saying: “It doesn’t have an impact on them.”

“I’ve watched some doctors say they’re ‘totally immune,’ I don’t know I hate to use the word ‘totally,’ the news will say, ‘Oh, he made the word totally and he shouldn’t have used that word,’” the president added. “But the fact is they are virtually immune from this problem, and we have to open our schools.”

The comments come as many schools throughout the US announce reopening plans and prepare for students to return, with some already returning to classrooms beginning this month. Mr Trump also claimed the virus would simply disappear, as he has since the start of the pandemic, when discussing school reopening.

“My view is the schools should open,” he concluded. “This thing's going way. it will go away like things go away, and my view is schools should reopen."