WaPo on the mental health crisis students are experiencing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It does not matter if some private medical providers are opting to provide some or even most services via telehealth. They are PRIVATE providers who are permitted to make their own decisions for their individual practices. They bear responsibility for the health of their patients and staff and can weigh risk as they see appropriate.

Public schools provide a public service and its primary purpose is to educate children to prepare them for college, the workforce, and to be informed citizen part of our democracy. The public service nature of public education involves a wider range of considerations, which go beyond determining whether some education is being delivered in the safest possible way. There is plenty of room for debate, but when DL is no longer a short term solution but is being considered as a long term delivery method, it becomes more important to consider whether the well-being of children is being served. DL certainly is the safest option, but other factors must be considered as well.

The comparison with private medical professionals was brought up because the PP (as many before her) was trying to use them as an example that lots of services are still only being performed virtually, and that this works just fine. Clearly, most medical professionals feel that their services cannot adequately be performed remotely. The same is true for teaching, but of course the decision-making process for bringing public school teachers back is different than in the private sector, as has already been shown by the fact that most private schools have been open in person in some form. As you correctly point out, the decision-making process should involve more than just teacher safety and the safety of other adults. So far, however, it appears that that has been the only consideration, to the detriment of kids.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Education is NOT being provided. End of story.

Unless you are at a private, that just simply isn’t true. It might not be the form of education you want or how much you want, but it is being offered. Even after schools physically reopen, it still won’t look like pre-pandemic school.

Education implies both a teacher teaching and a child actually learning. Simply offering up something digitally is not in any sense the meaning of "education". We could close all public schools and just keep library opens and that would be an "education" under your definition.

Does health care imply both a doctor giving treatment and the patient recovering? If so, there’s a lot of doctors not doing their job right now!

If doctors suddenly decided to radically change their job description, such as doing telemedicine only, and the recovery rates of their patients plummeted as a result, or only stayed the same because a family member of the patient took over the in-person part of the job, then yes, the doctor would not be doing their job.

That's how this analogy works.

Except that's not how it works at all, because many, many PCPs and other non emergency med doctors or surgeons DO continue to be doctors during a pandemic via telehealth, see patients and do all of this to the satisfaction of their employers. You know, just like teachers.

As for "recovery rates" -- meh. That's just the stuff of newspaper editorials and Own Er Up message boards. Irrelevant.

I doubt there are a lot, if any, doctors at this point who work exclusively virtually. My husband just saw his PCP in person, for an important but non-emergency reason, and I have a routine dentist appointment next week (where I will even have to take off my mask - I'm assuming the dentist will wear his). No pre-appointment Covid test required.

There haven't been a lot since the beginning. We have had a number of routine check-ups- think regular visits, gyn, dermatologist, multiple dentist appointments for the whole family, a podiatrist appointment, flu vaccines. The only time it wasn't possible was from mid-March until late April/early May.

Very, very few medical professionals are doing exclusive telehealth. It’s really only for very routine stuff that probably never required an in-person visit, like prescription renewal. Otherwise, they need to see you in person. What’s actually happening with medical care is that people are skipping needed preventive and other in-person visits. They aren’t doing them by telehealth - they just aren’t doing them at all.

What? I don't know what you're talking about. I get all of my pap smears done through the computer now. Just flash the ol' vag at the screen. I will never go back to in-person gynecology.

[Anonymous]

Just tons of pap smears. Tons.