JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Dr. Mohammed Reza is both a doctor and a dad. Specifically in his work, he’s an infectious disease specialist on the First Coast.
Tuesday, Reza sent an email to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, asking that the state rethink allowing public schools to open in August.
“It’s personal to me. I have children, school-age children,” Reza said in an interview with First Coast News Wednesday afternoon.
He had posted the letter on his Facebook page, and less than 24 hours later it had been signed – petition style – by upwards of 200 people. More than 50 of those people identified themselves as teachers; at least a dozen said they were in the medical field.
“I can’t send my kids to school just yet, knowing how bad things are going,” said internist Dr. Jennifer Cowart, who was among the first to sign the letter and said she wants to keep her children learning virtually for the time being.
“I just don’t see how that it’s going to be safe to go back in just one month, with the case counts being as high as they are right now," she said.
One report released Wednesday indicated that 31.1 percent of Florida children younger than 18 have tested positive for coronavirus. Although he expressed uncertainty about the accuracy of that number, Reza was unequivocal that the risk of re-opening schools in the near future is too great.
“At the height of a pandemic, it just seems like a recipe for disaster at this point,” he said.
Cowart offered a prediction.
“Something is going to happen within the first two weeks,” she said. “Maybe a teacher goes out sick, maybe a kid in the class goes out sick. And then there’s decisions that have to be made – does that whole class quarantine?”
Both Reza and Cowart went on to envision the disruption to families and the overall economy if COVID-19 spreads inside schools and aboard buses.
“I think we’re going to see these rolling, kind of stuttering stop-start approaches to school, and that’s going to be devastating to folks trying to work, to kids trying to learn,” Cowart said.
“This just becomes a ripple effect,” Reza agreed. “The bus drivers. You have to think about the people serving them lunch, the maintenance people. It’s all these people being affected, it’s not just one group. It’s the entire group.”
But while acknowledging that children with COVID-19 have shown statistically to be less vulnerable to death, Reza suggested that, as a group, children are the most vulnerable to decisions made by education and state officials.
“If [re-opening schools in August] leads to loss of life in children, I couldn’t forgive myself as a father,” Cowart said.
Cowart also addressed the unthinkable that apparently is in many people’s thoughts.
“God forbid we experience a death in the school district," Cowart said. "And I think that trauma is going to compound what people are already feeling.”