Interview with Dr. Zach Featherstone, deaf pediatrician, on the risks of schools reopening this fall
THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX):
Hello! Can you introduce yourself and where you live and work?
DR. ZACH FEATHERSTONE:
Hello, nice to see you again. My name is Dr. Zach Featherstone and I live here in Las Vegas, Nevada. I’m a pediatrician in my second year of residency with UNLV.
THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX):
I reached out to you because you’re a pediatrician. There is a big issue in America with schools and reopening. Some have already reopened. What are you insights on schools, on students going back to schools?
DR. ZACH FEATHERSTONE:
To be honest, my perspective is that there is no win-win scenario. Everyone suffers. I prefer — my position is to not go to school. I know that some of you might be shocked. The American Association of Pediatrics, a major organization, announced that they supported having students physically going to school, but the question is on how we navigate towards that? That is critical. We can’t bypass that just so we can be in school. We need to take the time to make sure everything is ready and set. Some schools have already experienced outbreaks and were forced to shut down. Yes, I understand that children need to go to school, of course. I’m a big advocate and I have children of my own. I’ve talked with many other doctors who have children and they all also want their kids to go back to school, of course. But, does it mean we should allow kids to go to school, and make it more likely for others to become sick and die? That shouldn’t happen. I feel that we need to protect high-risk people and their compromised immune systems. They might have poor health. There are many teachers, the CDC said that a third of teachers are at high risk for serious illness. They could die from the coronavirus. That’s not okay. We know that many children will be okay, but what about the teachers, administrators, and others? 1/3 is not an acceptable figure. That’s why I prefer for us to recognize our responsibility as members of Earth and the need to support our society. We need to support our population. That applies to both our children and our adults. It should not only be focused on children. They are important, but the others are just as important.
THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX):
Wow, that’s very concerning about the coronavirus. Are people underestimating the impact of the coronavirus? Does it seem like it’s nothing, with a 0.02% or 0.03% chance of dying. That the young are resilient? Some political leaders or others say that young people are strong and won’t die. What is a good response to that? How should we respond to that?
DR. ZACH FEATHERSTONE:
It’s important that all of our opinions and all of our personal feelings should be put aside. Look at the numbers. In this country, the total number of cases is 5 million. Of that 5 million, 5% are children. Out of that group, about 6% get so sick that they have to be hospitalized. They have to be in an ICU room. Of that 6%, 0.5% will die. The numbers are small, yes, but if you look at the entire picture of all the children out there, that means about 15,000 kids become seriously ill. 15,000 is a very high number if all the schools open up. That’s what will happen. 15,000 will fall ill. So, is that okay? Personally, I am not comfortable with that. Some people have compared it with the flu and said, “You can’t control everything. All people will eventually become sick anyways.” Wait. The flu is different. We already have a vaccine that helps us to prevent or lessen the rate of those sickened from the flu. Also, the flu’s transmission rate is not as contagious as the coronavirus. The JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association) just published a paper that said an earlier study suggesting South Korean children did not transmit the virus at a high rate was inaccurate. The most recent publication from JAMA said children under 5 years old contribute to an extremely high rate of transmission because you know how their noses run when they have a cold — if they touch their fluids and other objects, the virus spreads. Also, there is a very high amount of coronavirus in the fluid. That means kids can transmit it very easily. So we have to be careful.
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THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX):
What about students who are studying remotely — is there a mental health impact? It might affect their physical health, because it is hard to watch a Zoom screen all day. How do you weigh the pros and cons of mental health versus going in person and becoming physically sick?
DR. ZACH FEATHERSTONE:
There was one study that was published today that said there is a 20% to 30% increase in the children category that are thinking about suicide. So, mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and others — I’ve seen it myself where I work. My heart hurts, I grieve for them because like I said, I don’t think we’re ready for schools to open but it means that they have to suffer more. It hurts me. It’s a hard situation. I did say there was no win-win scenario. Everyone suffers. For example, in the deaf community, 95% of deaf children have hearing parents. I don’t know if they can communicate well with them. But they have it hard as well because remote learning is hard. They miss out on the interaction with deaf friends. These bonds are very important for our emotional and social development. We also just learned that the CPS (Child Protective Services), you know — if something happens and someone makes a call and they will investigate if the parents are doing physical abuse, or yelling at them, or neglecting them, that kind of thing — the CPS said the number of calls have drastically reduced. It’s because teachers at schools do make calls if they see something wrong, they will call in a report. Then there will be an investigation to help children who are in a bad situation. But now, because there is no school, it means calls to CPS have gone down. But we have seen a large increase in incidents of children being admitted to the hospital in very serious situations. They are either more seriously harmed or the situation is more severe because something bad happened. There is a large disparity. So naturally, children who are in bad situations or in bad homes are suffering far more as well. We recognize that as well.
THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX):
As you said, there’s no win-win scenario.
DR. ZACH FEATHERSTONE:
A lot of people think it is a bad thing to stay at home. That isn’t the case. There are many studies that show if you go to school, it is an environment with high stress. There are expectations that you have to do well, you have to pass certain things, all that, so there is a lot of stress. But when you are at home, there is less stress — usually. So that’s okay. If you’re staying at home, you can still learn how to interact with your family, how to keep up with the home, and how to talk with your family members. There is still value in staying home. It is important that parents or guardians of children to be more patient and more understanding and give more time with them to make sure they have a good experience and don’t feel stressed. That’s where all the parents in America needs to sit down, tell that you’re here for them, and that you love them. Make it a good experience for them instead of just leaving them to sit in remote classes. Become involved. There is a benefit in doing that.
I had a good discussion with a doctor — would you rather have a good education for one year and lose some family members, or wait one year and keep all of your family members? Which one do you rather? That made an impact on me.
THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX):
Yeah, that’s so simple but very powerful. Education can wait. But once someone dies, and you mentioned that some kids could die, that staff could die, or teachers… We already have 150,000 people die and we don’t want to see more. That’s the most important thing, life itself.
Thank you, take care, and keep on with your important work.
DR. ZACH FEATHERSTONE:
You take care too.
THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX):
Dr. Featherstone wanted to add that parents should go to their local schools for tours and communicate with them to find out about what is being done, to assess their local and state governments’ input on what should be done, and look at your local COVID numbers to make the best informed decision.