As a doctor who cares for patients in New Hampshire every day, I am deeply alarmed by Gov. Chris Sununu’s lack of leadership on school reopening.
Many of my patients are immune suppressed and perilously susceptible to the potentially lethal effects of COVID-19. Many of my patients have school-age children in their care; many are teachers themselves. Their health, and the public health, is threatened by the egregious lack of a firm, unified, common-sense plan for school reopening in New Hampshire.
Among the principal points of Gov. Sununu’s plan:
1) Masks are not mandated for students.
2) There should be three (not six) feet between classroom desks.
3) Each district is left to decide the terms of reopening for itself.
4) No state funding is provided to help schools with testing or personal protective equipment.
Dan Feltes has stepped up when it comes to reopening schools. His “Live Free and Learn Safe” plan includes free PPE and COVID testing for teachers, cloth masks for students, and community spread assessments for local school districts struggling to decide whether to turn back to remote learning after an outbreak. He knows that right now schools don’t need more flexibility; they need support and guidance from their elected leaders.
I support Dan. He is not afraid to stand up to this once-in-a-hundred-years crisis using the best scientific information available. We need this kind of leadership to protect the people I care for every day, indeed to protect all of us.
FRED BRICCETTI
Hopkinton
(The writer is a physician at New Hampshire Oncology-Hematology.)