THE COVID-19 MINDSCREW
and child development, lack of Internet and online resources for many families, not to mention the additional burden it places on working parents trying to finagle their own new quarantined work situation (or wage- worker/essential parents who had to scramble to find childcare). And yet, doesn’t even one preventable death of a child make it all worth it? If that child is yours, I’d argue yes... I know the rational side would be up in arms at this. But say that intangible COVID-19 young fatality you read about online suddenly hits very close to home... your own son or daughter... The tables have suddenly flipped, and I’d bet closing schools until we have a verified vaccine wouldn’t even seem that extreme. And where does that leave me? A mother who has followed all the rules... We stayed home, despite my kids’ protests, and missed Easter with cousins and Mother’s Day brunch. We wore the masks. We hyper-cleaned everything each time we came inside. I shoved down my anxiety so we could get through online learning while balancing remote work... And every morning that we all woke up fever-free was a good day. I don’t know what school will look like in the fall, and I don’t envy the people who need to make those decisions. I want my kids to be safe... I also want them to be taught by teachers and socialize with friends and play sports. I think I, like so many others, want life to return to the way it was... And I’m not sure it ever will.
And yet, doesn’t even one preventable death of a child make it all worth it? If that child is yours, I’d argue yes... But then I feel guilty desperately wishing my children would return to school. What if they get sick? Really sick? Here comes that cognitive dissonance again... Generally speaking, evidence so far shows children are far less vulnerable than adults and not seriously affected by COVID-19. And kids being around each other, swapping germs, will only help herd immunity. So why did we close schools to begin with ? School closures in the past may have helped curb the spread of the flu, but COVID is very different from influenza. As reported on the BBC’s website, data from the 2003 SARS outbreak (in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Singapore) suggest that closing schools did not contribute to the control of the epidemic. And recent studies of the current COVID-19 outbreak theorize that school closures would only prevent 2% to 4% of deaths. That’s less than other social-distancing and preventative methods. The many downsides of shutting down schools nationwide may far outweigh the slim chances it helped slow the spread – issues including homeless youths having nowhere to go, interrupted programs that provide lunches to more than 30 million children and breakfast to 11 million, disrupted education
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July 2020
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