| Abstract: | During a week when more and more schools decided not to open up classes for this fall, concerns about the welfare of children isolated at home, without the benefit of their peers or teachers, mounted as well. Elinore McCance‐Katz, M.D., Ph.D., assistant secretary for mental health and substance abuse of the Department of Health and Human Services, opined in USA Today that not opening schools would harm the mental health of children. In the limelight due to many changes in substance use disorder treatment due to the pandemic, McCance‐Katz sided with President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in saying that ignoring these casualties would harm children more than the risks of COVID‐19. The schools should reopen, and parents should decide for themselves whether they want their children to attend, she wrote. |
