As part of a 21 News Podcast, Virologist Dr. Benjamin Neuman, a Niles native and Biology Department Head for Texas A&M University discussed the curet state of COVID-19 and how schools and daycares will fare as they plan to reopen. 

Speaking on where the U.S. currently is in combatting the pandemic Neuman said the outlook for a while has been bad but a recent slow in cases could be promising.

"The U.S. has leveled off in the last couple of days in terms of the number of cases. That is positive. We were in an out of control rise before that."

However, Cases still aren't going down. Neuman said the U.S. has seen this trend before and a downward trend is what the nation should be looking for in terms of beating the virus.

So, what can be done? How can the nation avoid the large increases that have been seen over the last month?

"It seems as though every time we start to get people together in places then right after the virus starts to spike. The question now is how much of a spike there will be and how many will contract it?" said Neuman. "I don't think the virus knows or cares where it is. It's not a smart thing. It spreads whenever we give it the opportunity and we seem to keep giving it that opportunity."

Neuman said new forecasting models are looking more like the reality the nation is seeing currently and the country needs a more uniform approach to health mandates to combat the virus.

"We are kind of alone as a nation in handling this situation particularly badly. Pretty much everywhere else on the planet inhabited by homo sapiens is doing a better job right now than the U.S. That does not feel good considering the number of Nobel Prize winners and highly funded labs our country has."

When asked about schools, Neuman said there will be virtually no way from preventing kids from interacting and spreading the virus to their classmates and teacher.

"Studies from Texas and New Mexico are showing that around two teachers will be infected for every child they care for. We are going to tear through teachers much faster than children as these daycares and schools are open."

Neuman says that the nation will need to come to terms with the new way of life that has been around since the pandemic started, at least for a short time.

"Essentially right now the nation is trying to go back to a time before coronavirus, and there's no way to do that. Pandora's box has already been opened and we have to deal with this new world now."

But even with the promise of a vaccine, Neuman isn't exactly sure the public will be completely on board with immunization.

You could make a vaccine right now and there will be a lot of people who say I'm not going to take that."

You can listen to the full podcast with Dr. Neuman here.