CDC Director Robert Redfield says threat of suicides, drugs, etc a bigger problem for youth than COVID-19

Redfield made the remarks during a Buck Institute webinar livestream on July 14.

During the discussion, Redfield — a proponent of reopening U.S. schools amid the coronavirus pandemic — said that there is a very low coronavirus risk for children who do not have pre-existing conditions.

He also said that people should be more concerned about suicides and drug overdoses among youth, as their numbers are "far greater" when compared to COVID-19 deaths in youth.

"But there has been another cost that we've seen, particularly in high schools," he said. "We're seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We're seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID."