Trevor Noah on schools reopening: ‘Parents aren’t the only ones in danger’

Pay attention, class: Trevor Noah is educating audiences on the potential dangers of sending kids back to school amid the COVID-19 crisis.

On Tuesday’s episode of “The Daily Show,” Noah weighed the risks of “adorable super-spreaders” bringing the virus home to their families or infecting their teachers, and joked about how pandemic concerns might alter students’ in-school interactions.

Though children appear to be less susceptible to the respiratory illness, Noah cited a study out of South Korea suggesting that minors over the age of 10 can spread COVID-19 at the same rate as adults.

“You know some parents are going to try to brag about this,” Noah quipped. “‘Little Timmy is only 13, but apparently he spreads COVID at a college level.’ ... I’m not a scientist, but of course teenagers can spread coronavirus everywhere. Just think of how well they spread rumors.”

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And, as Noah notes, “parents aren’t the only ones in danger here.” As the country with the most COVID-19 cases in the world debates reopening schools, teachers are also facing the reality that they might contract the virus on the job.

“Unsurprisingly, teachers all across America are not enthused at the idea of having to put their lives at risk so that little Aiden can build a baking-soda volcano,” Noah said, referencing a teachers union in Florida that has sued the state government “for ordering schools to fully open in a few weeks.”

The comedian also took a swing at wealthy families teaming up to pay private tutors to educate their kids in “smaller so-called pandemic pods” instead of home-schooling their children or putting them back in school with their classmates.

“Yes, rich people are getting private instructors because, one, they can afford it and, two, because they aren’t allowed to just bribe colleges anymore,” he quipped. “And here we have yet another way the education gap in America is going to become even wider. ... If this generation comes out of school not being able to read, what jobs are going to be available to them? I mean, president for sure, but what else? So that’s where America is right now.”