'Criminal malpractice': MSNBC doctor shreds Betsy DeVos for evidence-free plan to reopen schools

A public health expert blasted Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for pushing to send children and teachers back to school as coronavirus cases explode.

President Donald Trump's education secretary repeatedly dodged questions about safety during Sunday morning interviews on CNN and Fox News, and Dr. Vin Gupta told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the administration's lack of planning was unconscionable.

"Secretary DeVos sitting here on the Sunday news talk show saying we have to restart schools, couldn't state a lick of evidence to save her life," Gupta said. "The secretary is sitting here making analogies to what they do in the private sector, what professional organizations do -- MLB, NBA. You know what they do? They have testing. They have point-of-care testing capabilities. You get a test, in 30 minutes you get a response."

"Is she going to lead, are Republicans in Congress going to fund it?" he added. "They said let's fund all 13,000 school districts, give them what they need. They need money to test, build in infrastructures to safely socially distance, that's what's needed is money and testing."

Florida reported more than 15,000 new cases Sunday, but still plans to reopen schools next month.

"We're seeing an infection rate in Florida approaching 20 percent," Gupta said. "To say this quickly, what's going to happen is, we have -- actually we have no idea what's going to happen, but we think kids have the ability to transmit the disease to teachers, parents, amongst themselves. The infection in the community will be so high. The only places schools could potentially reopen where testing is not available are in places we have the outbreak under control, a positive infection rate of 3 percent or less, not when it's one in five, one in three in places like Miami, it makes no sense. It's criminal malpractice there."