Dr. George Rutherford is the director of the Institute for Global Health and the head of the Division of Prevention Medicine and Public Health at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. He is also a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of California Berkeley. He has also been very involved in California’s COVID-19 response, and has published a number of articles on the topic. Today, he will discuss the trends in COVID-19 transmission. 

Dr. Rutherford explains that it is a dangerous misconception that outdoor activity is a safeguard for preventing the spread of COVID-19. Without social distancing, masks, and limiting group sizes, the risk can still be dangerous. Another contentious issue with which Dr. Rutherford is dealing is the reopening of schools. Under the age of ten, children are less likely to contract and transmit COVID-19, so as students enter middle school age, the issue becomes more difficult. As we’ve seen in some prison systems, herd immunity rests somewhere between 60 and 70 percent, which is ten times the infection rate we are currently experiencing, so it’s not something on which we should rely as we move forward. 

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