here's why:
we shouldn't be here. the management of this pandemic has been a complete disaster from the start. efforts to get this pandemic under control have not been only ignored, but undermined by our president. we shut down for weeks, and we have very little to show for it.
we shouldn't be here. the management of this pandemic has been a complete disaster from the start. efforts to get this pandemic under control have not been only ignored, but undermined by our president. we shut down for weeks, and we have very little to show for it.
we still lack adequate ppe. we don't have a coherent testing strategy, and the tests we are doing often take a week or more. we still lack hospital beds and icu beds and staffing required to handle what's here or coming. that's what the shutdown was for.
we flattened the curve so that we could address those things, and yet here we still are, months later. people are tired of it, and i get it. i'm really damn tired, too. i want this to be over. but we can't just *decide* it's over, which seems to be what's happening.
we reopened things we shouldn't have. people got to taste some degree of normalcy again, and i don't see a way to walk that back. we had one chance. so here we are. everything's open, and if you look around, aside from the friendlies in masks, you'd not know there was a pandemic.
and now we are talking about how to return to school safely. well, how to return to school safely in large part *doesn't have anything to do with school.* sure, the precautions schools are taking are important, but reducing the number of cases in the community was crucial.
i'm frustrated that i don't have any answers.
does your kid have covid? maybe. act like they do. access to testing is abysmal, and it doesn't change anything. what really matters more isn't them, but the people they're around. self-isolate until 72 hours after symptoms resolve.
does your kid have covid? maybe. act like they do. access to testing is abysmal, and it doesn't change anything. what really matters more isn't them, but the people they're around. self-isolate until 72 hours after symptoms resolve.
should you send your kids to school? not a question i can answer. a lot of important things happen at school. for some kids, school during a pandemic is a safer place than home. some parents won't be able to feed their kids because they can't work and can't afford child care.
school is really important, and all the other things have to be considered alongside infection risk. the best answer for public health is different from the answer for many families. kids will suffer--social isolation, anxiety, depression, lack of access to food, abuse.
parents won't be able to work. some families can afford that. others can't. it's going to widen the gap between races and economic classes. it's going to prevent kids from accessing vital services. keeping schools closed hurts kids. it hurts families who are struggling.
but should you keep *your* kids home? maybe. can you afford to have someone there with them? can you provide the support they need to learn? how old are they? what services do they get from the school? how are they coping with isolation? who else lives at home?
should you let your kids attend x activity? don't know. depends. let's talk specifics. what exactly happens there? indoors or out? how many kids? how far apart? shared surfaces? masks? lots of shouting/singing? who might your kids expose if they were to get sick?
life is complicated. and we didn't have to be here. we could have done it so much better. but here we are. and every. single. interaction. is a discussion about complex risk analysis and mitigation. there are no more easy visits. there are no good answers. and i'm tired.
