WTF?? Pence says: 'we don't need guidance from the CDC to open schools up'

At a press conference yesterday in Louisiana, VP Mike Pence doubled down on the White House message to ignore CDC guidelines for schools to consider reopening next month. Of course he does, because ignoring science has worked out so well for the White House in the past six months.

The CDC's guidelines for schools to consider encourage teachers and students to stay home when possible, mitigating the contact between students and teachers who might be at a higher risk from COVID-19. Pence was adamant he and the Trump administration are totally against their guidelines, and want schools to open immediately.

"I'm very confident that our universities can develop plans to safely reopen campuses and restart sports programs," Pence told reporters. "It's important—not just for student athletes and schools like LSU, but it's important for America."

"To be very clear, we don't want CDC guidance to be a reason why people don't reopen their schools," he said.

Louisiana is seeing another surge in COVID cases over the past few weeks, and has had over 80,000 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.