onfocus

"Our kids are compromised anyway because of COVID. We’ve got kids who are struggling with anxiety at a rate that is pretty significant. So this is just another layer of something terrible. So really trying to validate, like, 'You guys have had to manage so much, and so much has been asked of you. I would be surprised if you weren’t worried, if you weren’t anxious. I’m not asking you not to be. What I am asking is that you have ways to cope with that so that you are not hurting yourself or others.'"

This advice is helpful. Also the fact that we need this article shows America is not working.

"A one-year expansion of the U.S. child tax credit, a policy championed by President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats over Republican opposition, has disproportionately benefited states that voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020, a Reuters review of Treasury Department data has found."

Not one Republican voted for it.

"Instead, we’re placing our kids—the only population in this country that is 100 percent unvaccinated—in the direct path of this whirling monstrosity. By insisting on in-person school this year, we're asking them to spend six hours a day indoors with their unvaxxed peers and hoping that they won’t get blown away."

Yes, school feels like a game of chicken this time around against a virus that doesn’t blink.

See Also: Dan Sinker's article in The Atlantic, Parents Are Not Okay.

"Kids remain, as they have been throughout the pandemic, at much lower risk of getting seriously sick with the coronavirus, especially compared with unvaccinated adults. But the recent rash of illnesses among the nation’s youngest is a sobering reminder of the COVID-19 adage that lower risk is not no risk. With so many children unable to access vaccines and their health contingent on those around them, parents and guardians must now navigate the reality that Delta represents a more serious danger to everyone—which means it’s a more serious danger to kids as well."

This was avoidable.

Can I (a vaccinated parent) transmit the virus to my (unvaccinated) kids?

Yes. During pre-Delta, vaccines reduced transmission by a lot (85-90%), but they’re not perfect (100%). So, yes you can give the virus to your kids, although it’s much less probable than an unvaccinated person. We do not know how Delta changes the game. Delta is stickier with a higher viral load, so Delta has the potential to transmit from vaccinated to unvaccinated higher than before. But we just don’t know yet.

An epidemiologist looks at the Delta variant's impact on kids who can't get vaccinated yet.

"Teachers don’t feel safe. Most parents said in a survey that they’re “very concerned” about sending their kids back to school. So why are we getting bullied into opening?"

School administrators are being forced to choose between the health of their communities and losing part of their funding. They shouldn’t be put in this position.

"A majority of Americans are concerned that reopening schools this fall for in-person learning will lead to a surge in new coronavirus infections."

Most people realize we can’t wish the virus away. This survey didn’t even ask for opinions about covid-19 testing in schools or how people feel about increasing funding for schools to take on these challenges. I think we should be talking about those.

"...parents and teachers would be wise to reject any invitation to unnecessary heroism. I don’t want educating my kids to be a heroic act of American defiance — I want it to be ordinary. And I’d rather not sacrifice my children’s teachers, either, so that America’s economy can begin humming once more."

Yes to all of this. We are still in a growing pandemic that we can't wish away. There hasn't been enough testing and mitigating infrastructure built to make opening safe.

"And so, like countless other Americans, my family awaits the unveiling of our district’s plan for bringing kids back to school, which will be delivered over Zoom, because it’s not safe to hold a public meeting."

If we still can't hold public meetings, how in the world can we hold public school? I'm grudgingly coming around to this view. We need teachers and staff to be healthy and that means keeping them away from kids right now. As difficult as it is, I think we need to continue to have kids learn remotely until the virus is under control. I think that means we need an overhaul of work and school expectations but I don't see any movement anywhere that makes me optimistic that will happen in the next month or two.

“You shouldn’t have had kids if you can’t take care of them,” is comically troll-like, but has come up so often, one might wonder if you’re supposed to educate your children at night. Or perhaps you should have been paying for some all-age day care backup that sat empty while kids were at school in case the school you were paying taxes to keep open and that requires, by law, that your child attend abruptly closed for the year.

Cathartic read, and no solution in sight as the infection rate ticks up.