Pelosi: Slowing coronavirus spread necessary before reopening schools

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that the U.S. needs to get better control over the coronavirus outbreak before a widespread reopening of schools can occur safely.

In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” the House leader said Trump administration officials are not being realistic about the ability of local officials to keep students safe. 

“When you … reduce the spread, you can open up the schools, when you reduce the rate of infection in a community,” Pelosi said. “But until you do that, you have to be very careful.”

Pelosi also accused the administration of dealing in “disinformation” following days of criticism aimed at President Trump over his retweet of a video that featured a doctor known for claiming that masks do not prevent the virus’s spread.

“I think the president is spreading disinformation about the virus,” she added when asked about comments reported in Politico she allegedly made at a closed-door meeting with House Democrats accusing Deborah Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, of spreading false information.

“And she is his appointee,” Pelosi added. “So I don’t have confidence there, no.”

JUST IN: “I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don’t have confidence there, no,” Speaker Pelosi tells @MarthaRaddatz when asked is she has confidence in Dr. Deborah Birx. https://t.co/qvp1ZOU4QD pic.twitter.com/z6tb8ozO61

— ABC News (@ABC) August 2, 2020

Trump has defended his retweet of the video, which was taken down by Facebook and Twitter, suggesting that he retweeted it only because of its support for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug he has repeatedly promoted as a treatment of the virus despite a lack of studies showing its effectiveness.