My kids will not be attending physical school in the fall. Why?

1- to protect them from the potential of lung damage seen even in asymptomatic infections
2- to protect my special needs child
3- to protect me (50) and my hub (61)

1/n

I know we are lucky, hub works from home. Not all families have that ability. And some special needs kids depend heavily on services. Luckily our daughter has nonverbal autism & an auditory processing disorder, and a lovely demeanor. Many kids w/ autism are harder to handle. 2/n

So I don't think keeping 100% of schools closed would serve the needs of everyone, and many at risk kids would suffer greatly. But nor can we just "open her up" for business as usual. Look at what they are doing in China. They have incredible amounts of PPE. 3/n

They are also dedicating personnel to create a disciplined process of cleaning shoes, hands, changing masks, etc - before entering school. I've also seen some plexiglass things in some places that are interesting. A ton of thought and MONEY has gone into it. 4/n

The problem with the arguments by people like Rand Paul, is that the center point they argue from is that this virus isn't nearly as dangerous as "experts" have said. Ergo no need to spend money on added protection for kids. No need to worry about their role as vectors. 5/n

This talking point has been spread far and wide by Fox News, guys like the asshole "scrubs" docs in Bakersfield, the Stanford economist Dr., and nearly every right wing publication you can find. It all stems from the center point: convince Americans the true danger is low. 6/n

These people are guaranteeing that nearly 1/2 of Americans will scoff at the idea of spending large amounts of money and staff time to insure that those kids that do attend physical school will have the support to stay safe. 7/n

Many of these people also continue to stir up anti-mask arguments - as it serves the same purpose: gaslight the American public into thinking they should believe them and not their lying eyes. Their strategy appears to be multi-fold: 8/n

1- sow doubt that covid9 is more lethal than the flu
2- convince people the death tolls are inflataed
3- convince the right that the left has vastly overblown the severity and seriousness of the pandemic
4- tie all of the above to a loss of "freedom"

9/n

So as it pertains to schools, this is very, very dangerous. What we probably need, is a reopening for perhaps 50% of the kids, where those who can keep their kids home, do. Every principal should be making a list now of families that have that ability, and those who don't. 10/n

A national plan for how to enact safety measures - things like plexiglass, air circulation, max limit of students per sq ft, all of this needs to be thought out and FUNDED. Wiping surfaces with Clorox? That will simply not do for a virus where airborne transmission is key. 11/n

We didn't really begin shutting down as a nation until Trump came out with that 2 weeks to slow the spread guideline. Likewise, schools face an uncertain, uneven, and rocky road to the fall unless guidance is given at a federal level. 12/n

Until therapeutics and/or a vaccine is available, there isn't any reason to believe your own family will be safe allowing your children to attend school in the fall unless schools have major changes to them. Let's see an honest discussion about the funding for that begin. /end