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Originally Posted by Ped
Sure, but iirc, while there was data showing kids didn't get COVID as much, or as badly, one of the concerns that they were carriers; they would go into school with dozens of kids in their class, take it home, and spread it amongst those that were vulnerable.
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The data showed that wasn’t the case with early strains. Again, this was known from studies of the first wave. In parts of the world where schools stayed open, they were not significant nodes of transmission. But once any hesitancy towards restrictions was coded as far-right troglodyte talk, a lot of people simply ignored unwelcome data.
Anti-vaxx protestors are mostly idiots. But we need to stop pretending the pandemic was only politicized by one side. Mandating vaccination for all federally employed workers was a political flex, rather than an absolutely necessary public health measure. Marginal reductions in transmission rates for a few months was not worth the long-term blowback in political radicalization and damage to trust in public institutions.
As for the impact of school closures and remote learning, they’re thoroughly documented by studies around the globe. It takes next-level cherry-picking to pretend they were anything but a disaster for learning and other child welfare outcomes. Which is why we won’t see any wide-scale school closures attempted again unless we’re in a total societal breakdown level disaster.