-- Former Palos Verdes mayor Brian Campbell has released an informative video interview with nationally-known Santa Monica pediatrician Dr. Robert Hamilton. The interview uploaded on video platforms and on Brian Campbell’s own public service blog goes in-depth on the issues surrounding reopening in-person schooling for underaged children.
Among several questions Dr. Hamilton addressed in this interview was a query regarding what medical experts and epidemiolgoist have learned in the past year regarding Covid’s effects on grade school age children. Hamilton echoed the scientific consensus that underaged children were the age group least affected by the extreme effects of Covid infections.
As a result, Hamilton restated his position first put forth last summer that underaged school kids should be allowed back in school as soon as possible given the extremely low infection fatality rate of under-aged kids.
Dr. Hamilton’s call for the reopening of schools echoes a growing chorus of experts, governors and big city mayors to get schools back to a normal footing. ,
“There’s a push across the country to fully reopen schools and this has the backing pediatricians who say kids need to be back in school and by now the data shows children are not major spreaders of the coronavirus.” Hamilton stated during the interview.
Hamilton also responded to Campbell’s questions about children being allowed back into public spaces by stating the importance of mental and physical health benefits of allowing children to socialize more normally and the desirability of allowing kids to play organized sports.
Hamilton’s assertion is in line with similar calls from other medical experts such as Pediatricians like Dr. Warren Seigel, chairman of the New York State American Academy of Pediatrics who agrees that scientific evidence shows that children in school are at no higher risk of being fatally affected by COVID.
The shelter-in-place restrictions from the Covid pandemic and the resulting isolation for students is regarded as a public health threat which in some cases can lead to mental health problems including a rise in childhood depression and suicide attempts.
Hamilton was one of several speakers at a taped press conference held by America’s Frontline Doctors in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in the summer of 2020.
”We can send children back to school without fear,” Hamilton wrote last year, saying the threat of isolation was more of a danger than children dying from Covid-19.
Hamilton- who founded Pacific Ocean Pediatrics in 1996-is also known for conceiving the “Hamilton Hold,”- a technique to calm crying babies that has gained Hamilton millions of Youtube views and an invitation to demonstrate his technique on a live in-studio broadcast of Good Morning America.
Interviewer Brian Campbell currently serves with the Palos Verdes Library District (PVLD) which oversees the libraries of the communities of Rancho Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, and Rolling Hills Estates. The Palos Verdes Library District is a Special District governed by a Board of Library Trustees which consists of Brian Campbell and four other elected members who serve without pay for four-year staggered terms.
As a current elected trustee of PVLD, Campbell has said he will advocate that the board find ways to provide innovative opportunities for social connection during the current pandemic.
The PVLD offers a variety of community programs such as the PVLD Adult Services department which helps the public and library community by providing welcoming, responsive, professional customer service throughout the district.
Release ID: 89000778