Thread by @maggiekb1

Gang, please stop sharing the CDC School Rules meme. It's unnecessarily freaking people out.

Quick explanation:
The meme is not totally fake. It seems to be drawing from actual suggestions on the CDC website. But it is catastrophizing an extreme form of those guidelines ...

So, for example, the actual CDC website says "don't put a mask on a kid under 2, that's a safety hazard" and the meme translates this as ALL KIDS OVER TWO MUST WEAR MASKS.

cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…

Buses are another good example. The CDC website talks about it being a good idea "when possible" to create extra space on the bus. And then gives some examples of how to do that "e.g., seat one child per row, skip rows".

The meme: CHILDREN MUST SIT ONE TO A SEAT SKIPPING ROWS

In general, it's important to know the context here. CDC guidelines are unenforceable suggestions. They're meant to help schools think through all the complications and come up with individualized plans.

A list of CDC guidelines is always gonna feel a little extreme and unrealistic in the same way that, say, the way your drivers' ed books tell you you should be driving at all times feels a little extreme and unrealistic.

I think, ultimately, the key thing that meme left out is all the times the actual CDC website says "WHEN POSSIBLE" or "AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE". The word "possible" occurs 18 times on the CDC page. That is not an insignificant omission.

Will school be open in fall? I don't fuckin' know. I kinda hope so because my kids miss it desperately. But I'm pretty sure my local district will not be trying to jackboot a bunch of gradeschoolers through a physically, financially, and psychologically impossible hellscape.

Oooh! Better analogy just occurred to me.

These CDC guidelines are the abstinence-is-safest message. Technically true. But also wildly unrealistic for most humans. In reality, you're gonna use safer sex practices and take a little risk.