I want my kid back in school, just like most parents do, but I don’t want to Die for Wall Street, either. There’s lots of talk about children’s mental health. This is a very real and serious concern. But let’s be honest. Biden doesn’t care about our children (unless they have nice smelling hair). The actual driving force for reopening schools is getting parents back to work, so Bezos, Musk and Dimon can increase their profits by billions more.
Unsafe Schools
But aren’t the teachers all vaccinated now?
In many places, yes. But the majority of their communities are not. And this is a big problem in terms of getting back to normal, which can’t happen as long as covid continues to proliferate in the community. It’s an even bigger problem for the more than 1,000 people who are still dying each day from the virus. For those who can’t go back to work because the ongoing spread is keeping their jobsites closed. Or those whose jobs have disappeared forever. For those suffering long haul syndrome who are still too sick to work. And seniors and people with disabilities who depend on still-unvaccinated caregivers to keep them alive.
Contrary to the CDC’s assurances of “safety,” the new UK variant B117 is spreading rapidly within schools. Many scientists are challenging their exuberant claims that three feet of distancing is “safe” for schools. And Covid is spilling out of the schools and into the community. In Europe, where schools have been open since the fall, some countries, have had to close their doors because of the B117 variant. Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany, have all confirmed B117 outbreaks in schools. In the U.S., Minnesota, Michigan, and North Carolina, have all seen school-related B117 outbreaks spread into the community in recent weeks. Indeed, schools are now the number one source of new Covid outbreaks in Michigan.
What’s Causing the Mental Health Crisis?
While there is compelling data that young adults and teens are suffering more stress, anxiety and depression right now, it is not clear exactly why. Most of the media assume it is due entirely to the isolation and loss of close, personal contact with peers. But when you consider how much social media has replaced face-to-face communication, even before the pandemic, this hypothesis seems a less convincing. On the other hand, millions of people lost their jobs and homes this year. Millions are struggling to put meals on the table. Food and housing insecurity are powerful causes of stress, anxiety and depression. And what about the thousands who lost family members to Covid? Those who became orphaned? Grief and loss are also well-known causes of stress, anxiety and depression.
Yet, even if the loss of in-person learning is a major part of this mental health crisis, one has to wonder how in-person school is going to help. In many places, schools will have less than half their students returning because parents don’t want their unvaccinated kids subjected to the risk. Those that return will get the exact same Zoom lessons they were getting at home, without the comfort and security of home. This is because their teachers can’t simultaneously perform live lessons for their half-empty classrooms and separate Zoom lessons for those at home. Everyone will be fully masked for 7 hours a day, unable to see each other’s smiles, or pouts. There will be strict control over when, where and how they can move through campus. They will be forbidden from hugging, shaking hands or giving high fives. At lunch, they will be spaced six feet apart in assigned and monitored seats. Consequently, they might not even see their friends at lunch.
This scenario sounds grim and apocalyptic to me—hardly conducive for mental healing. (Click here to read one high school student’s description of what returning to school was like for him.)
No One Should Have to Die for Wall Street
The pandemic has been the single worst crisis for working people since the 1930s. By some measures, it has been worse. Hundreds, if not thousands, have died from Covid infections they picked up at work, or that their family members brought home from work. Millions have been thrown into destitution.
In a sane world (i.e., one in which the needs of people were placed ahead of the demands of Capital), we would have shut down everything except truly essential jobs a year ago. Supplied everyone with the food and resources they needed to survive. Implemented contact tracing and quarantines to keep infection rates low. And spent the interim building the infrastructure for quick vaccine manufacturing and distribution, while implementing a public health campaign to convince the anti-vaxxers that vaccines were the quickest way back to “normal.”
No one should have to die for Wall Street. No one should have to risk their lives just to have a roof over their heads.