As some universities suffering from coronavirus outbreaks send students back home, experts are concerned that doing so could lead to a more intense spreading of the virus nationwide, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

"Shipping the problem back to the community, where they can further spread, just doesn’t seem like the right answer," said Yale School of Public Health professor A. David Paltiel. "Just because a kid is asymptomatic doesn’t mean it’s safe to send that kid home. They could be exposed and incubating. They could be in fact a ticking time bomb."

Vice President Mike Pence recently pressed governors to consider isolation of the students on campus in order to minimize the potential exposure in other communities.

Pence’s urging comes as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that sending students home after outbreaks is "the worst thing you could do," insisting that colleges should instead isolate infected or potentially-infected students on campus.

White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx warned governors in a call that sending even asymptomatic students home could cause a repeat of what occurred in portions of the South early in the summer, when teenagers traveled to vacation spots, resulting in the development of outbreaks in many other places as they returned to their various homes.

Paltiel stressed that the concern is very real, as "College-age kids are the vector; they are the accelerator by which the virus can be amplified."

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