From LA Progressive
Israeli Schools Opened Early and a Coronavirus Spread Catastrophe Ensued, Foretelling Disaster If US Schools Reopen In-Person
Even as yet another wave of shock and bewilderment arises from another revelation of Trump, deadly ignorance, malignant narcissism and sociopathology rippled through the US as the Jonathan Swan Axios interview was aired last night, many school districts and much of the media in the US is succumbing to the Trump/DeVos narrative that schools should reopen. This is despite the clear scientific evidence that the Coronavirus is not going to abide by the "magical thinking" used to justify their self-serving goals.
BuzzFlash has written numerous commentaries on how science clearly informs us that premature opening of schools in-person will lead to student, teacher and extended family infection, and for some older persons (including teachers) death. (You can read the pertinent BuzzFlash commentaries at the bottom of this page.)
One example, among multiple ones, BuzzFlash documented was how in Israel schools recklessly reopened and were the cause of creating a new surge there when the country was starting to contain the Coronavirus. BuzzFlash has referenced a July 14 article -- from The Daily Beast, "Israeli Data Show School Openings Were a Disaster That Wiped Out Lockdown Gains." The sub-headline was clear:
- Of 1,400 Israelis diagnosed with COVID-19 last month, 657 (47 percent) were infected in schools. Now 2,026 students, teachers, and staff have it, and 28,147 are quarantined...
Israel's unchecked resurgence of COVID-19 was propelled by the abrupt May 17 decision to reopen all schools, medical and public-health officials have told The Daily Beast...
Just in time for the kindling wood fire that will come with US school reopenings, on August 4 The New York Times got around to reporting on the Israel experience with an understated headline, "When Covid Subsided, Israel Reopened Its Schools. It Didn't Go Well."
Additional insight from these paragraphs from The NYT article indicates how Trump and DeVos have still dangerously managed to co-opt the narrative that schools must open in-person, even if many districts are refusing to do so:
- Confident it had beaten the coronavirus and desperate to reboot a devastated economy, the Israeli government invited the entire student body back in late May.
Within days, infections were reported at a Jerusalem high school, which quickly mushroomed into the largest outbreak in a single school in Israel, possibly the world.
The virus rippled out to the students' homes and then to other schools and neighborhoods, ultimately infecting hundreds of students, teachers and relatives.
Other outbreaks forced hundreds of schools to close. Across the country, tens of thousands of students and teachers were quarantined.
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