{"id":35475,"date":"2020-09-06T09:38:08","date_gmt":"2020-09-06T13:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=35475"},"modified":"2020-09-06T09:38:13","modified_gmt":"2020-09-06T13:38:13","slug":"lets-not-blame-local-officials-for-playing-it-safe-in-the-age-of-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=35475","title":{"rendered":"Let’s not blame local officials for playing it safe in the Age of COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em> @mikemcgannpa<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>By rights, we should be enjoying the start of a new school year \u2014 bragging on our kids, showing off their new clothes and school gear.<\/p>\n

In a normal year, we should talking about which high school football teams in the Ches-Mont are early break outs and which programs look to be struggling.<\/p>\n

We should, as usual, bemoan the length and stupidity of the election season, but be ready to the last person to show up on Election Day and cast our vote.<\/p>\n

We should be excited to see the latest blockbuster movie \u2014 best seen in a theater with a big crowd.<\/p>\n

All of those things should be happening, but COVID-19 stopped our country in its tracks \u2014 and leaders in Washington, D.C. flailed and lied and denied \u2014 now 190,000 people are dead (yes, really \u2014 that 6% claim is a bunch of crap, about which I will elaborate on further on down).<\/p>\n

But instead I see people blaming Gov. Tom Wolf for keeping restaurants to just 25% of capacity and various restrictions \u2014 like halting high school sports \u2014 and it\u2019s unfair. While Wolf has made decisions at times not everyone agrees with, his quick and aggressive action saved the state from a much worse outbreak.<\/p>\n

Wolf didn\u2019t cause COVID-19. Wolf didn\u2019t cause a Presidential failure to respond that made things an order of magnitude worse. Wolf did what he could to keep his state safe \u2014 embraced the science, listened to the experts as they learned what this virus could do.<\/p>\n

Wolf is not to blame. Even Dr. Deborah Brix, one of President Trump\u2019s point people for battling the virus, lavished praise on Wolf, Thursday, for his swift action to contain the virus. Meanwhile, legislative Republicans continue to have their temper tantrums about Wolf\u2019s actions, no matter how many lives it saved. These people literally don\u2019t care if you or your family die as long their business pals (read campaign contributors) get to reopen, pronto.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what it has come down to.<\/p>\n

In the same vein, I see a lot of heat going onto to school boards and superintendents over the decision not to reopen schools for in-person instruction \u2014 and it is not fair.<\/p>\n

I understand the frustration \u2014 it\u2019s not ideal for students and it creates a burden for parents.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re questioning the wisdom of your local school board, take a look at some of our universities.<\/p>\n

My kids \u2014 Unionville High grads \u2014 are sophomores in college. My son Ken found out Thursday none of his classes would be in person for the rest of the semester at Temple, which is now experiencing an outbreak (Pennsylvania is starting to show signs of have a state-wide outbreak, again, by the way \u2014 how much worse would it be had schools opened a couple of weeks ago). My daughter is doing better at Nevada-Reno \u2014 but it\u2019s hard to have confidence that any university is going to be able to avoid a breakout, seeing U. Alabama, U. North Carolina, Notre Dame and others seeing explosive outbreaks.<\/p>\n

I was very hesitant to send them back to school \u2014 but I also saw how they struggled in the spring, stuck at home, deprived of their new-found independence. I also knew they would be careful \u2013 they wouldn\u2019t be at parties, they would wear masks. But they\u2019d also be dependent on other kids doing the same \u2014 which apparently did not happen at Temple.<\/p>\n

So, I don\u2019t know how K-12 schools would have fared any better.<\/p>\n

When Chester County Health recommended no public school open for in-person instruction before Oct. 9, it was pretty much game over \u2014 no school district could ignore the liability problem of opening before local health officials said it was safe.<\/p>\n

I know folks are upset that the Ches Mont postponed all sports for the fall season. While many experts suggest that outdoor sports are safer than indoor sports, there\u2019s no guarantee that contact sports \u2014 football, soccer \u2014 won\u2019t spread the virus. There\u2019s a clear risk.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve noted here, I felt like the risk was less than the rewards \u2014 keep in mind how many kids get hurt playing sports, which we don\u2019t get as exercised about \u2014 but I don\u2019t fault anyone who has the responsibility for these kids deciding the risk was too great. I\u2019m sure it was a tough call, and I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t have to be the one to make it.<\/p>\n

And after seeing the reports out of Downingtown about the cheerleading squad \u2014 six members of the team tested positive for COVID-19 after attending a cheer camp \u2014 I might well have been wrong about restarting high school sports.<\/p>\n

The virus is insidious \u2014 the way it spreads among the asymptomatic makes it difficult to contain. I can\u2019t \u2013 and won\u2019t \u2014 criticize any local district or board for making what it sees as the safest choice for its students and the greater community.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a new and utterly fruitcake theory in right-wing circles: only about 6% of reported COVID deaths are really from the disease. The other 94% had a co-morbidity which is what really killed them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s bull crap. Like the claim it only kills old people. Or that kids can\u2019t get it. These are dangerous lies and those who spread them should be ashamed of themselves.<\/p>\n

I am a bit overweight and have well controlled high blood pressure (which is wildly common, by the way). Under this theory, were I to contract COVID and die, you can\u2019t count it as a COVID death. Based on actuarial tables, I can reasonably expect to live 25 to 30 more years \u2014 even with those two conditions \u2014 so I were to get COVID-19 and die, the virus would be to blame.<\/p>\n

More than 100 million people \u2014 including many spreading this lie \u2014 fall in this category in the US. I\u2019m not willing to be a human sacrifice just to make the Chamber of Commerce or The Club for Growth happy.<\/p>\n

Are you?<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

As noted often, President Donald Trump is a font of bad advice. This week, he struck again, advising Pennsylvania voters to vote by mail, and then show up at the polls to check to make sure your vote counted, and if not, vote again.<\/p>\n

To be clear, voting twice is a felony, don\u2019t do it. Going to your polling place when you\u2019ve already voted is an unnecessary risk during a pandemic. Fortunately, you can quickly and easily check the status of your ballot \u2014 and even find out when it is mailed to you. Navigate to https:\/\/www.pavoterservices.pa.gov\/Pages\/BallotTracking.aspx<\/span><\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s quick, it\u2019s easy \u2014 and best of all you don\u2019t have to risk COVID-19 or prison to find out whether your vote has been counted.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Have a safe, sane, socially distanced and fun Labor Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa By rights, we should be enjoying the start of a new school year \u2014 bragging on our kids, showing off their new clothes and school gear. In a normal year, we should talking about which high school football teams in the Ches-Mont are early break outs and which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11909,7207,6518,5859,312,12370,230,12371],"class_list":["post-35475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-covid-19","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-featured","tag-gov-tom-wolf","tag-high-school-sports","tag-school-boards","tag-schools-2","tag-universities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35476,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35475\/revisions\/35476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}