Covid 19 Infecting A Nation Of Fools

FOX13 (Tampa Bay) reported on Sunday, July 12, 2020, The first day of school for many districts across Florida is scheduled for August 10, and while Governor Ron DeSantis is pushing for students to get back into the classroom, the Florida Education Association says many districts are not ready for that.

Meanwhile huffpost.com reported on the same day, (Reuters) - Florida reported a record increase of more than 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours on Sunday, as the Trump administration renewed its push for schools to reopen and anti-mask protests were planned in Michigan and Missouri.

If Florida were a country, it would rank fourth in the world for the most new cases in a day behind the United States, Brazil and India, according to a Reuters analysis.

Florida’s daily increases in cases have already surpassed the highest daily tally reported by any European country during the height of the pandemic there. It has also broken New York state’s record of 12,847 new cases on April 10 when it was the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak.

The same time this was being reported Education Secretary Betsy Devos was interviewed by Chris Wallace at FOX News. During the interview she used Florida's forced school openings as a springboard as to why other schools should be planning to do this as well.

Here's my thoughts. Even if it were true kids are less susceptible it doesn't mean their teachers, staff, after school caregivers and family members would be. Neither half day classes nor 2-3 day a week classes are great alternatives. This would be a problem for full time working parents.

Then there's the school bus problems. School transportation providers are concerned because many of their drivers are oldsters. A number of them already indicated they will opt out. There is certainly no way of social distancing these kids on the bus. Not unless they're planning running only half full. This would in turn require double the runs which would necessitate more drivers. Obviously a problem since (as I mentioned) there's likely to be less drivers they had in prior years.

What about PPE and hand sanitizers? Schools already were short on supplies which teachers paid for out of their own pockets. Are they suppose to provide protective gear now too?

I'm not going to pretend I have answers but there's one thing I'm sure of. You can't plow hell bent headlong into this without much better plans than I heard. I don't give a flying fig what Trump wants or his education secretary. What this will boil down to is what teachers, staff, and parents are willing to risk.

Ignoring the pandemic isn't going to make it go away. Nor pretend it's an overblown hoax. Anyone who thinks they can jump into a fire and not get burned is sadly mistaken. But I guess some people have to find it out for themselves.