President Trump said in a Rose Garden address this afternoon that those who are resisting his insistence to reopen schools with in-person classes in the fall needed to “stop this nonsense.”

While the decision to open schools falls squarely on the shoulders of local and state education officials, Trump has threatened to withhold federal education funds for districts that do not comply with his mandate.

In today’s address, Trump cited schools in Germany, Norway, Denmark and Sweden have reopened, claiming they’ve done so without any serious public health repercussions.  Experts, however, noted that, with the exception of Sweden, those countries have drastically reduced case transmission which resulted in substantially lower reported new daily cases.

In an attempt to have its population develop “herd immunity”, Sweden implemented few public health recommendations.  As a result, they have one of the highest per capita mortality rates in the world, at least five times greater than the other three mentioned.

Trump has not explained how he would prevent schools from being local disease vectors or what type of plan he endorses, but he is insisting students attend in-person classes as a way to spur economic growth so parents can return to work.

His recommendations, however, counter the suggestions of public health and education professionals who, while understanding the importance of school attendance is for the growth of students, state that prematurely demanding schools open will lead to potential virus transference hotspots.

Trump has claimed that those pushing for continuing to maintain distance learning are doing so for political reasons to damage his reelection chances.