How To Do It

(Sadly it's the radio version, not the video one.  Ah, well....)

What makes me think of this?  Funny you should ask:

In his editorial, Christakis calls for a panel made up of interdisciplinary experts to make school reopening a priority in the United States. "I think we should sort of reason backwards from the expectation that children do start school, that that's an imperative. And then how do we make that happen safely?"

Safety, of course, is the reason schools closed around the world in the first place. It's still considered very rare for children to become seriously ill from the coronavirus, but recently a handful of children have died from an inflammatory illness related to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The science on children's role in spreading the virus is also a moving target. A new analysis of Chinese contact-tracing data in the journal Science, co-authored by Maria Litvinova, suggests that children are in fact less susceptible to coronavirus infections. But because they have so much close contact at school, canceling in-person classes plays a key role in flattening the curve of an outbreak.

Litvinova says she is doubtful that schools, especially in big cities, can reliably enforce social distancing to reduce the number of contacts. "It's very difficult to explain to children that they shouldn't stay with their friends or talk with them or be close to each other."

Christakis is himself an epidemiologist by training. But he says these concerns are exactly why experts from different backgrounds need to be consulted, so that the risks of reopening schools can be properly balanced with the risks of keeping them closed. "If we declared the meat supply a national emergency, we should do the same with the brain supply."

There are enormous problems with social distancing and/or masks, etc., at schools.  Not to mention the parents who have to be convinced their kids will be safe (you'd have a hard time convincing me!).  But what we need, says Christakis, is essentially to put a bunch of smart people in a room and not let them out until they jolly well come up with something!

Given the current state of affairs in the nation (Texas has "at least 33,369" cases of covid-19, "including 906 deaths....The virus is present in 216 out of the state's 254 counties," but Greg Abbott says "Let's open gyms and hair salons in 3 days instead of in 5 days!.  Jared Kushner is in charge in D.C.  Need I say more?), the idea that a "panel of interdisciplinary experts" is going to come up with any solution, much less a solution that guides schools from Alaska and Hawaii to Maine and Florida, and all points between, is frankly no less idiotic than the "solutions" offered in that Monty Python sketch.