Dr. Makary on Oakland teachers calling classrooms a ‘death trap’: They're making ‘an eternal excuse’

close

Video

Dr. Makary pushes back on Oakland teachers calling classrooms a ‘death trap’

Dr. Marty Makary reacts to the California teachers planning a ‘sick-out’ in defiance of in-person learning

Dr. Marty Makary pushed back on Oakland, California teachers' claim that classrooms were a "death trap" on Friday during an appearance on "The Faulkner Focus." Makary said teachers are offering an "eternal excuse" with claims that COVID is making it too dangerous for classroom instruction.

THIESSEN SLAMS COVID CLASS CANCELLATIONS: 'ANY TEACHER THAT REFUSES TO TEACH SHOULD NOT BE TEACHING'

DR. MARTY MAKARY: That rhetoric is very damaging because what it does is it looks only at viral replication, and it does not consider mental health. And people are dying from mental health problems and that’s something where if you want to construct an argument where the environment is unsafe you can always do it looking very focally at looking at only one organ system. If you look at the totality of harm it is clearly there. Developmental, suicide, we’ve seen mental health worsen among 31% of kids according to a study—a mental health crisis. You can always construct a medical argument among the eternal excuse of an environment being unsafe. But, if that’s the case then the kids should not be in automobiles which account for more deaths than COVID-19 over the last two years. 

WATCH HARRIS FAULKNER'S FULL INTERVIEW BELOW 

Video