Seriously, don’t you have some work to do?SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2020
Besides, we listened to you and opened businesses. Look where that got us.
Seriously, don’t you have some work to do?SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2020
A couple of thoughts.
ReplyDelete1. It's the economy stupid. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/06/shoppers-across-the-country-are-retreating-again-as-coronavirus-cases-surge.html Retail sales are sinking. They are sinking most in places where there are no mask rules. Shoppers don't feel safe. Where there are mask rules, retail sales are at least increasing.
2. I can't find the tweet, but a MLB player pointed out that sports are the dessert when you have a functioning society. With an out of control pandemic, we don't have a functioning society and it's crazy to be focussed on restarting sports.
3. Schools, I was in an interesting hour and half plus discussion of alumni acquaintances and friends, including professors, doctors, teachers and lots of parents. At the college level, the students want to go back but no one really thinks they will socially distance and behave as needed (to quote a British police officer the night after they reopened all the pubs, "It's crystal clear that drunk people can't social distance). It's hard to believe the hodge-podge efforts of the colleges will work. Harvard just announced they will test all the students every 3 days. Yale is going to have adult dorm monitors. Many schools are going to all singles in their dorms, but as was pointed out all this will do in many cases is force students into more crowded off campus housing. These are the "best" efforts of schools with unlimited resources, it's hard to believe the rest can do even these. I think this all collapses when the first student ends up in the ICU and parents are frantically pulling their children back home. All of this of course ignores the employees that will be exposed due to the behaviour of the students. For K-12, it's a lot harder question. Those parents and schools with more means can do remote learning. It will be sub-par, but at a minimum it mostly avoids going backwards. For poorer students and communities, it's in person or nothing in a lot of cases. As one teacher pointed out, NYC lost 100 teachers to the coronavirus. It's a serious risk to staff. All the choices have substantial negatives. If we were a functioning society we would be focussed on how to make this work instead of dumping the problems on the local schools with no support. Just a simple example, to reduce exposure on buses, there will be limit of 11 students a run. How do you get all the kids to school on time with such small runs? Who pays for all the extra driver time, fuel, buses wear and tear? Do you need an extra monitor on the bus to be sure the rules are followed? These are the problems just to get them to school! The general atmosphere was one of despair at the question.