It's probably just me (again) but it's a little disconcerting watching television and seeing all the commercials during newscasts for 'Back To School' supplies, dormitory outfitting, clothing, shoes, blueberry muffins (just checking to see if you were still following along) because the newscasts the commercials are sandwiched around are giving me the very distinct impression that the traditional back to school countdown we go through every year at this time is not what is actually going to happen, and perhaps shouldn't be happening at all.
If you watched Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) who participated in Governor Lamont's COVID Daily Summary Monday afternoon, you saw and heard a message, not unlike the one shared Sunday morning by Doctor Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force with CNN's Dana Bash.
My takeaway from both doctors, and the busload of infectious diseases doctors and virologists who've been here, there, and everywhere around the dial and within the pages of nearly every newspaper and magazine for months is that we are nowhere near ready for a return to any form of our normal, be it new, used, gently-preowned or otherwise.
If you're someone who believes the suggested precautions of responsible physical distancing, mask-wearing when you can't physically distance, and soap-and-water hand-washing are 'fake news,' 'alarmist' or are somehow in some way an infringement on your 'rights,' I hope you can take solace that the coronavirus probably doesn't care what you believe.
If your argument is 'but the guidance keeps changing,’ good news! That means science evolves as new facts are learned. It’s called knowledge and knowledge is, or should be, power. Not too many centuries ago we believed the earth was the center of the universe (some of us believe we still are) and many once thought the earth was flat. And look at us now, all science and stuff. Ain’t it grand?
Whether it's 'opening up' the stores, churches, beaches, and other aspects of what we used to think of as our everyday lives and economy, or 'letting the kids go back to school,' don't pretend either is a simple either/or proposition.
As Governor Lamont's Monday briefing emphasized in terms of 'return to school' the number of positive tests per 100,000 residents will weigh heavily into how any return is handled. His briefing slide Monday had three tiers (with appropriate safeguards across all three) with 'in-person' being less than 10 positives per 100,000; 'hybrid' (remote and in-person) for rates ranging between 10 and 25 positives and 'remote' for any and all rates higher than 25 positives per 100,000.
Dr. Fauci's preference would be in-person instruction with students and teachers in classrooms for many reasons to include psychological, to support socialization between and among students, as well as nutritional, because so many students of all grades rely on schools for breakfasts and lunches but even as he offered that he also added that the principal determinant should always be the safety, health, and welfare of each child and every teacher.
So do parents buy back to school clothes and do teachers prepare for classroom instruction in less than a month's time?. Right now, we need to acknowledge that our reality is both temporary and subject to frequent change. I was once told 'the purpose of education is to learn the rules of the game better than anyone else so you can change the rules.'
Right now, the rules are in flux and all we can do is all we are doing.
-bill kenny
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