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An open call to restore normalcy for U.S. children
- enjoyyourlife 5y agoAn example of the "It's for the children" fallacy
- throwaway984393 5y ago"Children aren't at risk, so let them go back to school without restrictions" "But they still can spread the virus to vulnerable people. How will this not result in more deaths of vulnerable people?" "Those people can wear a mask." So, fuck the health and safety of adults [and vulnerable children], our children feeling happy is more important.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- _mnlu 5y agoI think that's a reasonable view at this point. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, particularly when a lot of the few will be dead soon enough anyway.
- throwaway984393 5y agoBy arguing that the few should suffer and die just so the many can lead a comfortable life, then genocide, slavery, classism, teacher etc are all totally cool too. As long as the needs of the many are served by it, it's fine. Right? ... only in this case it's not a need, it's a want.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- tonfreed 5y agoUntil the teachers union stops rentseeking, there will be no return to normalcy. With the teachers I've seen on the internet, homeschooling is looking more and more attractive.
- kerneloftruth 5y agoThis is especially timely and relevant as a recent John's Hopkins study reports: https://health.wusf.usf.edu/health-news-florida/2022-02-02/a-johns-hopkins-study-says-ill-founded-lockdowns-did-little-to-limit-covid-deaths https://health.wusf.usf.edu/health-news-florida/2022-02-02/a...
- drewrv 5y agoI feel like it's worth pointing out this study is from Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health and the Study of Business Enterprise. The authors are all economists, none have a background in epidemiology or medicine.
- ZeroGravitas 5y agoEconomists do this a lot. Turns out Dvorak wasn't any better than Qwerty say keyboard ergonomic experts, oh no actually it's free market economists who think the market is never wrong and Qwerty is an annoyingly popular contradiction. Betmax wasn't higher quality than VHS say analog video quality experts, oh no it's free market economists who think the market is never wrong and Betamax/VHS is an annoyingly popular counterexample. Recycling doesn't actually help the planet say ecology experts, oh no wait it's those free market economists who don't believe the market is ever wrong and recycling is a popular counterpoint. And so on..
- lern_too_spel 5y agoNone of the measures in the John's Hopkins study are currently in place.
- robhunter 5y agoPlenty still in place in Canada
- endisneigh 5y agoI don’t know how anyone can support restrictions at this point. All school aged children can be vaccinated and the vaccine is effective at decreasing hospitalization and death.
- cplusplusfellow 5y agoI’m unaware of any data showing that children require vaccines to avoid hospitalization and death in large numbers. Can you share some?
- hedora 5y ago"Large" is subjective, and the vaccine moves the decimal point one or two digits in the correct direction. Also, as a matter of practicality, you don't want a steady state where a rotating 10-20℅ of the class is out with whatever the current covid variant is.
- robhunter 5y agoSure, but to the second point, the vaccines also don't materially reduce transmission
- pmg102 5y agoThey somewhat reduce it. Perhaps by 50%, against currently dominant variant (which is itself of course subject to change.) Everything that helps to reduce prevalence helps kids stay in the classroom. Here in the UK there's a huge subpandemic among 5-11 year old schoolchildren, a group which are not vaccinated. I have a child of this age, off twice with covid in the last few months. I wonder if it'd be more effective to vaccinate them or to just do away with self isolation rules for them. The problem is the spillover into parents, who will be at higher risk due to age and possobly at much higher risk if clinically vulnerable. On this one I find it hard to form a strong opinion.
- robhunter 5y ago
- bsder 5y agoAt this point, Omicron has made pretty much everything moot. After this wave recedes and the hospitals unblock, I suspect everybody is going to go back to normal and treat Covid like we treat the flu.
- robhunter 5y agoI'd love to agree with you, but having engaged with local school board trustees on a number of tangential issues, I'm pessimistic. I think there's a lot of people who have permanent scar tissue as a result of the last two years, and aren't likely to ever go back to normal.
- lazide 5y agoThat’s pretty normal anyway - it’s a spike in total count, but there have always been folks who couldn’t handle life who act out in ways directed at public servants. It’s unfortunate, but if you attend any city council meetings you can’t miss them. The reality is, we can’t stop that and we can’t let everything else stop because of that either.
- nnoitra 5y ago
- ZeroGravitas 5y agoShould we be worried that the top comments on so many stories here are dark mutterings about how the forces that secretly control our society are causing the democratically elected governments to intentionally kill the sheeple for somewhat vague and unexplored reasons? It's all got a bit apocalyptic and dark recently. Is this what we believe as a community? If not, why is it so often at the top? Do most people just not engage with the stories that evoke these reactions. Or should I expect to be reading earnest debate about Bill Gates plan to inject 5G chips into people to track the population on HN soon?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- loonster 5y agoMy kids never stopped being normal. I never saw a need for them to wear a mask.
- hasajacyszatan 5y agoI hate the idea of having to go to school normally again
- throwawaymanbot 5y ago