Dr. Wasef Muzaffar Discusses Strongly Urging an Alabama School District to Cancel This Week's In-Person Graduations
KEILAR: The alarm being raised over a school board decision in Alabama to allow high school students to have in-person graduations. In an op- ed in the "Hoover Sun," at least 32 Hoover City High School alumni in the medical, nursing and health professions are urging officials there to reconsider. Dr. Wasef Muzaffar is one of the alumni who's making this plea. He's an anesthesiologist in Texas. Thank you so much for joining us to talk about this. We have Hoover City school officials who are saying attendance is optional. They argue they're taking precautions, for instance, requiring everyone to have masks. They're having no open seating. Graduates will not be allowed to throw their caps on the air. Seating area will be thoroughly disinfected, they say, before and after the ceremony You say it is not enough. Tell us why you think that and why you've gone to the school board officials to say this is not enough.</s>DR. WASEF MUZAFFAR, ANESTHESIOLOGIST & HOOVER CITY HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNUS: Hi. Thank you for having me. We've taken a lot of precautions and we understand this is a joyous moment for high school students, really accomplishing their graduation. But there are still a lot of common areas that people will have to pass through and that's thousands of people. There are only two or three entrances with shared spaces. People using the same bathrooms. People handing out flyers and pamphlets, having contact with all of the people who enter and exit the facility. Furthermore, this isn't just about personal freedom. People choose to go or not go to a graduation. This is about people who will potentially be asymptomatic carriers, who will also then go out into the community at large and impact other people potentially. So it's really a matter of what's best for the public and not best for each individual.</s>KEILAR: You say the mask, even if the school is providing masks with filters, this creates a false sense of security. Tell us why.</s>MUZAFFAR: These masks, N-95 masks are specifically designed to fit certain types of faces. So students are not getting proper training on how to wear these masks properly, or how to remove them without contaminating themselves or the masks. And additionally, not every mask fits every person. There are large sizes, small sizes. So while you're wearing a mask, you may not be protected yourself and might not be protecting others.</s>KEILAR: And furthermore, they're going to be allowed to lower their masks for photographs, which I am guessing you would argue is problematic.</s>MUZAFFAR: Right. There's a time and place for graduation. I feel for all of the students. Originally, this was going to be planned for a later time, maybe in June or July, a later date. I think, at this time, the data will tell us it's not the right time to have a gathering this large and to do things like photos.</s>KEILAR: There's actually another high school in eastern Alabama and it held in-person graduations last week. The difference was they held this in an outdoor football stadium. They reduced the numbers by spreading out the ceremonies over five nights. So you can cut it down to a fifth for each. Do you think that's a better option?</s>MUZAFFAR: It certainly is a better option. However, we don't know what the rates are in Alabama given the lack of testing in that state and across the country nationally. Additionally, people in Alabama, unfortunately, are typically have more health care inequality. There's a lot more co-morbidities. So again, this isn't really just about the graduates and their families coming together for an event. They will leave graduation and go to their communities and put them all at risk.</s>KEILAR: Dr. Muzaffar, thank you for joining us and representing your profession as well as your alma mater. We appreciate it.</s>MUZAFFAR: Thank you so much for your time.</s>KEILAR: More on our breaking news. Markets soar on hopeful news out of a vaccine trial. My guest is working on a vaccine and he says, you know what, not so fast here. Plus, as new clusters break out in South Korea at a fitness club, I'll be speaking with a gym owner who is reopening today in Texas. And a sobering warning from the Fed chief that the economic downturn may last until the end of 2021.