One by one, the lockdown myths are crumbling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shutting schools down for an extended period was definitely harmful especially for younger kids for whom remote learning was a joke. In many states it was the teachers unions who did a real disservice. An early on shut down was understandable given the level of fear but soon it became know that the risk to children was much lower than adults. Yes, the teachers were adults but masks etc proved to be effective.

+1

Our kids were in lower elementary when COVID hit in March 2020 and missed the rest of that year but they were back to school in-person starting August 2020 and every day thereafter. No one from their school, to this day, has died from COVID. Can I prove if someone's grandparent died because a kid was in school? No, but faculty and staff and kids were all fine, and presumably their immediate families were as well or we would have heard of it (it's a very tightknit school community). I feel terrible for the kids who weren't as lucky to have stayed in school. And no, I don't blame the teachers.

Saying no one from their school died of covid as a justification means nothing. Because you or your child has covid, brings it out in the community, it could kill someone else but you wouldn't know about it. That's how my parent died. Someone at their independent living facility had covid, sat at a table with them, spread it and a few weeks later my parent was dead.

So, what's going on at home that is so terrible that you need to get your kids out of the house and have others care for them.

My kids did great in virtual. It was nice spending the extra time with them. You and your attitude was why your family failed during that time.

DP. I'm sorry for your loss.

But it isn't an excuse to be a jerk to people.

I'm not being a jerk. I'm tired of people not being responsible parents and then blaming it on something or someone else. If covid hit when your child was age 5, this was not a COVID-related speech disorder. You should have had them in infant and toddler or private speech at least by age 3, like the rest of us did for our kids. Kids have language disorders. Kids have reading disorders. It has nothing to do with covid. And, if your child was struggling in reading, why not sit down with them for 30 minutes a day a few days a week and work with them or get them evaluated and a tutor or fight for a good IEP. So many options beyond complaining. You can complain as your kids fall further and further behind while the rest of us acknowledge the problem and get the best help we can for our kids.

[Anonymous]

I think shutting down was a smart move. We have no way to know what would have happened if we hadn't done it. I'm glad we did. It was sensible and probably worth the cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shutting schools down for an extended period was definitely harmful especially for younger kids for whom remote learning was a joke. In many states it was the teachers unions who did a real disservice. An early on shut down was understandable given the level of fear but soon it became know that the risk to children was much lower than adults. Yes, the teachers were adults but masks etc proved to be effective.

school was a super spreader site. these policies was never about protecting children from getting the disease and the notion that it was is some kind of weird revisionist history.

Also, the children are fine.

Test scores and juvenile crime rates suggest that the children are not fine.

+1. The children are not fine. My son was in kindergarten in March 2020. The learning loss and behavior issues among young elementary kids is immense. So many kids in 3rd-6th grade now lacking basic social skills and unaware of behavioral norms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shutting schools down for an extended period was definitely harmful especially for younger kids for whom remote learning was a joke. In many states it was the teachers unions who did a real disservice. An early on shut down was understandable given the level of fear but soon it became know that the risk to children was much lower than adults. Yes, the teachers were adults but masks etc proved to be effective.

+1

Our kids were in lower elementary when COVID hit in March 2020 and missed the rest of that year but they were back to school in-person starting August 2020 and every day thereafter. No one from their school, to this day, has died from COVID. Can I prove if someone's grandparent died because a kid was in school? No, but faculty and staff and kids were all fine, and presumably their immediate families were as well or we would have heard of it (it's a very tightknit school community). I feel terrible for the kids who weren't as lucky to have stayed in school. And no, I don't blame the teachers.

Saying no one from their school died of covid as a justification means nothing. Because you or your child has covid, brings it out in the community, it could kill someone else but you wouldn't know about it. That's how my parent died. Someone at their independent living facility had covid, sat at a table with them, spread it and a few weeks later my parent was dead.

So, what's going on at home that is so terrible that you need to get your kids out of the house and have others care for them.

My kids did great in virtual. It was nice spending the extra time with them. You and your attitude was why your family failed during that time.

DP. I'm sorry for your loss.

But it isn't an excuse to be a jerk to people.

+1

I forgive it because of the anger but that was nasty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shutting schools down for an extended period was definitely harmful especially for younger kids for whom remote learning was a joke. In many states it was the teachers unions who did a real disservice. An early on shut down was understandable given the level of fear but soon it became know that the risk to children was much lower than adults. Yes, the teachers were adults but masks etc proved to be effective.

+1

Our kids were in lower elementary when COVID hit in March 2020 and missed the rest of that year but they were back to school in-person starting August 2020 and every day thereafter. No one from their school, to this day, has died from COVID. Can I prove if someone's grandparent died because a kid was in school? No, but faculty and staff and kids were all fine, and presumably their immediate families were as well or we would have heard of it (it's a very tightknit school community). I feel terrible for the kids who weren't as lucky to have stayed in school. And no, I don't blame the teachers.

Saying no one from their school died of covid as a justification means nothing. Because you or your child has covid, brings it out in the community, it could kill someone else but you wouldn't know about it. That's how my parent died. Someone at their independent living facility had covid, sat at a table with them, spread it and a few weeks later my parent was dead.

So, what's going on at home that is so terrible that you need to get your kids out of the house and have others care for them.

My kids did great in virtual. It was nice spending the extra time with them. You and your attitude was why your family failed during that time.

DP. I'm sorry for your loss.

But it isn't an excuse to be a jerk to people.

I'm not being a jerk. I'm tired of people not being responsible parents and then blaming it on something or someone else. If covid hit when your child was age 5, this was not a COVID-related speech disorder. You should have had them in infant and toddler or private speech at least by age 3, like the rest of us did for our kids. Kids have language disorders. Kids have reading disorders. It has nothing to do with covid. And, if your child was struggling in reading, why not sit down with them for 30 minutes a day a few days a week and work with them or get them evaluated and a tutor or fight for a good IEP. So many options beyond complaining. You can complain as your kids fall further and further behind while the rest of us acknowledge the problem and get the best help we can for our kids.

Unbelievable that you are still on this rant years later, when all sane people know that closing schools was a disaster for most kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shutting schools down for an extended period was definitely harmful especially for younger kids for whom remote learning was a joke. In many states it was the teachers unions who did a real disservice. An early on shut down was understandable given the level of fear but soon it became know that the risk to children was much lower than adults. Yes, the teachers were adults but masks etc proved to be effective.

+1

Our kids were in lower elementary when COVID hit in March 2020 and missed the rest of that year but they were back to school in-person starting August 2020 and every day thereafter. No one from their school, to this day, has died from COVID. Can I prove if someone's grandparent died because a kid was in school? No, but faculty and staff and kids were all fine, and presumably their immediate families were as well or we would have heard of it (it's a very tightknit school community). I feel terrible for the kids who weren't as lucky to have stayed in school. And no, I don't blame the teachers.

Saying no one from their school died of covid as a justification means nothing. Because you or your child has covid, brings it out in the community, it could kill someone else but you wouldn't know about it. That's how my parent died. Someone at their independent living facility had covid, sat at a table with them, spread it and a few weeks later my parent was dead.

So, what's going on at home that is so terrible that you need to get your kids out of the house and have others care for them.

My kids did great in virtual. It was nice spending the extra time with them. You and your attitude was why your family failed during that time.

DP. I'm sorry for your loss.

But it isn't an excuse to be a jerk to people.

I'm not being a jerk. I'm tired of people not being responsible parents and then blaming it on something or someone else. If covid hit when your child was age 5, this was not a COVID-related speech disorder. You should have had them in infant and toddler or private speech at least by age 3, like the rest of us did for our kids. Kids have language disorders. Kids have reading disorders. It has nothing to do with covid. And, if your child was struggling in reading, why not sit down with them for 30 minutes a day a few days a week and work with them or get them evaluated and a tutor or fight for a good IEP. So many options beyond complaining. You can complain as your kids fall further and further behind while the rest of us acknowledge the problem and get the best help we can for our kids.

DP. Do you know how incredibly privileged and clueless you sound? Have you looked at the terrible, terrible stats about the children permanently hurt the most because of the educational shutdowns? You really are coming across as a wealthy, “let them eat cake” jerk here. I think it is because of grief and I am sorry for your loss, but grief doesn’t mean you can be a jerk.

[Anonymous]

So wait, a senior in an independent living facility was socializing and sitting with others and got Covid? And we're supposed to except kids to hide away at home, seeing nobody to protect the most vulnerable who do very little to protect themselves? Sounds pretty selfish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The inconsistency of the lockdown restrictions tipped off anyone paying attention. I lived in Seattle at the time, and they closed all the city parks, beaches, and WA state parks in Spring 2020. Playgrounds near me were fenced off for over a year, but when homeless encampments took over parks, that was okay. Large crowded protests were fine, but a year later public schools were still closed. If the messaging is inconsistent, people will rightly question it.

Why don't you offer up a room to someone homeless to get them out of the parks and give them a place to live?

What a privileged comment. I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with no outdoor space and two small kids, but you think my family should risk eviction, privacy, and personal safety for social justice reasons? Even poor urban people like me deserve safe outdoor places for our kids to play. But I bet your kids had a nice big house and a backyard to play in, so you didn't have to see homeless at all during Covid, so why would it bother you? Perhaps you one creating the policies that kept the homeless people homeless?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So wait, a senior in an independent living facility was socializing and sitting with others and got Covid? And we're supposed to except kids to hide away at home, seeing nobody to protect the most vulnerable who do very little to protect themselves? Sounds pretty selfish.

It's 2024. Get a new interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like the vaccine rollout in March 2021 should have basically ended all precautions but the public health officials for reasons I don’t understand failed to communicate well what the vaccine would do. As I understand it, sterilizing immunity was never a realistic expectation for a coronavirus vaccine. They should have just said “Hey folks this is the best we can do, let’s get back to normal!”. Instead the drama dragged on for another year+.

The vaccine thing was even worse. They blatantly lied and said it would prevent transmission and you won’t get Covid anymore. Then they said masks would stop. All lies. Then when they did the vaccine passport thing, that was too much over the top for me.

Why have vaccine passports to attend games or go to a restaurant when it didn’t prevent transmission and you could still get sick?

They just rushed it out and created all these rules that made zero sense. I can see if the vaccine stopped transmission and it worked like an actual vaccine, but cmon. It works like a flu shot, at most.

I also HATED how smug the vaccinated were against the unvaccinated. I was one of the first to get fully vaccinated, but to shun people and even family from events for not taking the vax was just cruel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So wait, a senior in an independent living facility was socializing and sitting with others and got Covid? And we're supposed to except kids to hide away at home, seeing nobody to protect the most vulnerable who do very little to protect themselves? Sounds pretty selfish.

It's 2024. Get a new interest.

You mean like clicking on and responding to threads I'm not interested in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The inconsistency of the lockdown restrictions tipped off anyone paying attention. I lived in Seattle at the time, and they closed all the city parks, beaches, and WA state parks in Spring 2020. Playgrounds near me were fenced off for over a year, but when homeless encampments took over parks, that was okay. Large crowded protests were fine, but a year later public schools were still closed. If the messaging is inconsistent, people will rightly question it.

COVID knows what is a valid protest. Why do we keep having to explain this?

I’ll never forget that. Go protest because of George Floyd in large numbers in large crowds. But seeing your sister in their home? No you’re a superspreader!

[Anonymous]

I just started working at a YMCA before and after school program with kids from kindergarten thru middle school. 80% are on vouchers and they all attend Title I schools. These are the kids hit hardest by the pandemic losses, especially in social and emotional development and in access to the behavioral supports necessary to overcome their often acute challenges.

On the bright side, I just heard a piece on NPR ATC about the historic gains over the last year made by some of the same kids who suffered historic losses during the pandemic. Of course, it's mostly the kids in better school districts with fewer challenges who are bouncing back so quickly. https://www.npr.org/2024/01/31/1228214205/u-s-students-are-starting-to-catch-up-in-school-unless-theyre-from-a-poor-area

Same as it ever was - the poor take the biggest hits from every kind of social upheaval.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just started working at a YMCA before and after school program with kids from kindergarten thru middle school. 80% are on vouchers and they all attend Title I schools. These are the kids hit hardest by the pandemic losses, especially in social and emotional development and in access to the behavioral supports necessary to overcome their often acute challenges.

On the bright side, I just heard a piece on NPR ATC about the historic gains over the last year made by some of the same kids who suffered historic losses during the pandemic. Of course, it's mostly the kids in better school districts with fewer challenges who are bouncing back so quickly. https://www.npr.org/2024/01/31/1228214205/u-s-students-are-starting-to-catch-up-in-school-unless-theyre-from-a-poor-area

Same as it ever was - the poor take the biggest hits from every kind of social upheaval.

I’m sure the b on this thread will just say the reason the poor kids aren’t catching up is because of “trash parents.”

Also remember when the pro-school-closure people were the ones that supposedly cared about equity?

[Anonymous]

Move. On. OP.