A soul-crushing article
We are watching one of the greatest inequities committed in the name of public health in a generation

I urge, beg my progressive colleagues to reconsider

Beyond this article, here is why [thread] https://twitter.com/vkoganpolisci/status/1312845078726152193

On a prior episode of @Plenary_Session we explore the consequences to children (poor, minority, vulnerable kids) from closed schools

Those consequences include... https://soundcloud.com/plenarysession/ep313

Impact on wealth
upward mobility
nutrition (this is where they are eating)
detection of physical abuse
detection of sexual abuse
socialization
comradery
psychological well-being
civic engagement
education/ knowledge
a path out of poverity

We talk about the political imbalance that makes it easy to close schools

That school boards serve adults, not kids

That unions can poison the right decision for kids

But what about the viral risks?

On the next episode of @Plenary_Session I sit down with @apsmunro and we review

1. the risk to kids
2. the risk to teachers
3. the risk to broader populations

from the virus

The available data is sobering...

Kids who are infected face low risks of bad outcomes (yes, this includes multi-inflamatory syndrome. Pls consider the denominator)

Very low risks

On par with risks that we send kids to school each year.

Contact tracing data shows kids much less likely to be infected in the first place, if a household member has it than adults

Kids are uniquely less susceptible

We should be grateful for this

Data supporting kids are a major vector of transmission is virtually absent, and available data provide the opposite note.

We are making a colossal policy blunder:

The intervention is: to close schools
(opening them is not the intervention; thats status quo)

The harm to kids is massive, catastrophic and will be bore by the poor, the vulnerable, minorities

the upside to society is theoretical, and marginal at best, as evident by several streams of data that @apsmunro will detail

This is a misguided trade-off, and seems, in part, motivated to spite Trump. Let's not harm kids to spite him.

Finally, on this week's episode @sdbaral talks about what public health really means

Is a vehicle to enforce measures that people oppose, or is it meant to serve, to mitigate, and not eliminate risk in a world that will never be free of death or risk of illness

This is the greatest public health error in my lifetime.

More docs agree with me, but are afraid if they say so, they will terminated in this age of #Mobtwitter

Anyone who calls themself a progressive, must champion the following solutions

1. Public schools MUST open
We can mitigate risk, not eliminate it

2. We can lower risk with strategies, but must accept some

3. Stopping rules must be symptomatic cases/ ill people and not PCR surveillance

4. When school reopens it must be year round (no more summers off)

5. School hours need to expand to 5 PM, and schools can provide meals at end of day

6. Every dollar spent on bullshit health care should be put instead to kids education

Public health was meant to serve those who society neglects, not meant to be a tool to punish them, while the rich sit at home on zoom, ordering Uber eats, and tweeting about how slow the delivery-person is

Oh and lets not forget, rich kids in private schools are still attending in person....

Yes! And, I can provide the money. CMS can stop paying for the IVC filter and selenexor, and there you go.... https://twitter.com/vkoganpolisci/status/1312851270638723074?s=20