school openeing — Blog — The Green B Letter

A few weeks ago Texas Lt Governor Dan Patrick exhorted America’s seniors to die at the altar of Covid, hoping to please the god Virulence with such sacrifice so that he would normalize the economy and leave everyone else alone. Missouri governor and fellow Republican Mike Parsons wouldn’t be outdone. In a Good Ol’ High stakes Texas Hold ‘em he ante’d up. “I’ll see your old people and raise you your kids.”

With your parents and grandparents out of the way and the kids sniffling from Coronavirus, you can go back to work with a clear conscience. While driving to the office, remember to stop at CVS for some tissues; grab some oxygen tanks too. It may make breathing a little easier between coughing spells. Remember, it’s all for a good cause. The young and the old, human shields defending our leader of self-proclaimed “great wisdom” for his and the party’s reelection –it’s the economy, stupid. The economy above all else. Die Wirtshaft Uber Alles.

Here is what Governor Parsons said, as quoted in the Kansas City Star:

These kids have got to get back to school; They’re at the lowest risk possible. And if they do get Covid -19, which they will, and they will when they go to school—they’re not going to the hospitals. They’re not going to have to sit in doctors’ offices. They’re going to go home and they’re going to get over it and most of it all proves out to be that way if you look at the science.

Yes, Governor, we all know kids have to get back to school. This is not exactly a statement of understated, brilliant leadership. Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In the hands of some politicians these days, it packs a wallop of a C-4 exploding. You want to look at the science, Governor? Let’s look at the science.

According to the CDC as of mid-July, 175,374 children aged 17 or under contracted Coronavirus. That represents 6% of the total; deaths for the group is only 0.2% of all fatalities. In actual numbers, that’s 228 children dying from Covid-19. Here’s where statistical legerdemain plays its cards: under 15, deaths drop to 31. New York, North Carolina, Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma have all suffered at least one death of a young person. In Texas, one county has reported 85 infants under one year have tested positive. According to Houston’s KHOU 11’s website, Coronavirus taskforce member Dr. Chris Bird, “We’re in the middle of an outbreak within an outbreak.” No one saw this coming. If you look at the science, it would have been a blank page under Infant Outbreak until recently. Our medical knowledge of Covid-19 evolves as the plague rages on, and scientists gather more data to turn into vital information.

Science, more than Trump or Parsons or Patrick or any other lunatic, says we don’t know everything and are still learning. Schools need every precaution, all safeguards, vigilant monitoring and a button that says STOP!. Most districts shut schools down early as the virus’ arc swept upward in the spring. We simply do not know what may happen to children’s health when schools open in the middle of a deadly pandemic. The same holds for effects on the neighborhoods at large.

Nervous central administrative offices, coerced by the powers-that-be, will tell you what they are going to do to protect their students. They will assure parents and convince themselves it is safe for everyone. Districts and their municipal governments are notorious for falling short on promises, spending less than they guaranteed, not hiring the personnel needed. Unfunded mandates, thy name is school. They are ill-equipped for the looming emergencies Coviod-19 threatens.

Most important of all, when school policy is decided on political, self-interest, or ideological reasons rather than disinterested professional analyses for safe schools, disaster awaits. This holds true for Democrats as well. Covid-19 education policy is emerging as a classic case of political need usurping health and safety in a medical emergency. So, parents, if you believe Gov Parsons and Lt Gov Patrick and Pres Trump are doing all they can to protect your school-age children and not desperate to open because they see schools as the means to economic recovery and their election, send them all to school and God be with you. Just remember, like soldiers storming the beach, not all will be shot, not everyone will be hurt, but there will be the dead and injured.

If your children are over ten, if there are pre-existing, underlying conditions the odds say your children are increasingly at risk. If there’s an infant and or seniors in your house, the 12-year old potentially could be a walking Covid bomb. You may not have received a draft notice, but your tweens or teens have been conscripted for battle. The president has ordered them to the front lines. Some will be casualties of war; Family members collateral damage. As the good governor says, look at the science.

Editor’s note: See The Green B Letter post “Covid and Kids” for more on opening the schools and the dangers to children and family.