The Signal and the Noise
As Covid Hysteria makes a comeback, school districts must discern between truth and propaganda
(Photo Credit: ABC News)
Our country’s insatiable appetite for Covid Hysteria has returned with a vengeance this week.
Just when interest in the virus itself was starting to drift away in a warm summer breeze, one of our major cities, Los Angeles, decided breaking up was too hard to do.
Los Angeles County’s pointless reinstatement of an indoor mask mandate late last week kicked off the latest round of Covid Hysteria. Las Vegas piggybacked LAC’s edict 24 hours later, although its county health department was smart to ‘recommend’ indoor mask wearing, not ‘require’ as LAC commanded.
(Business is booming in Las Vegas and nothing will keep the slot machines from rolling. A ‘mandate’ would never align with commerce interests.)
What’s troublesome about Los Angeles County’s reversal is the lack of a public health emergency. The area has not seen a surge in hospitalization or death rates, typical symptoms of tighter restrictions. The LAC sheriff went so far as to say the law enforcement agency will not enforce the mask command as it’s not backed by ‘science.’ While a shrewd and accurate assessment of that county’s public health resolution, it’s unfortunately irrelevant. The toothpaste was already out of the tube and the first drumbeat note in the lovesick ballad, “I Can’t Quit You Covid” could be heard coast-to-coast.
The anxiety junkies, hooked on fear and panic, have crawled out of their basements and with fresh supplies of angst opioids, are using again.
The nuttery is out of control, no doubt. And coming from those in the medical field.
Monday, while the stock market plummeted, the American Academy of Pediatrics released its recommendation that all children over the age of two should be masked while in school.
From the AAP press release:
AAP recommends universal masking because a significant portion of the student population is not yet eligible for vaccines, and masking is proven to reduce transmission of the virus and to protect those who are not vaccinated. Many schools will not have a system to monitor vaccine status of students, teachers and staff, and some communities overall have low vaccination uptake where the virus may be circulating more prominently.
Research has shown that opening schools generally does not significantly increase community transmission with masking and other safety measures in place. Recently, COVID-19 variants have emerged that may increase the risk of transmission and result in worsening illness. Given the effectiveness of safety precautions when used consistently, children are at higher risk of suffering mental health issues and developmental setbacks if they miss out on in-school learning, according to AAP.
How benevolent of the AAP to cite “mental health and developmental setbacks” in endorsing in-school learning. But its defense for pushing universal masking “because significant portions of the student population is not yet eligible for vaccines” is not sound reasoning. That’s analogous to a transportation agency advocating for bicycle riding as the superior work commute option because cars are too fast and the risk of accident greater.
But it’s going to take you 10 times longer to get to work riding a bike…
But think all the joys of nature you’ll experience being outside…
It’s balderdash.
If the AAP believes mask wearing can eradicate Covid, which appears to be the unachievable common-held end game amongst public health at all levels, then cite data research and medical studies in the release. But it doesn’t. AAP craftily advocates for in-person learning while justifying mask wearing because a ‘significant portion of the student population is not yet eligible for vaccines.’
So what does AAP really stand for? Do they believe universal mask wearing is the golden ticket or just a placeholder until the vaccine rate is 100 percent?
It’s the type of mixed messaging about Covid common place throughout our culture since March 2020.
But here’s the question on most everyone’s minds as we approach the end of July and the scheduled re-opening of schools: what do school boards think of all of this? How much is signal and how much is noise?
Amidst a back drop of local control advocacy, board of education meetings throughout Chicagoland have seen a wide disparity of outcomes on mask wearing.
Wheaton School District 200, one of the largest in DuPage County, voted Thursday for all-optional on controversial mitigations for its full time return to the classroom in August. Masking/testing will be parental/student choice and no quarantining regardless of vaccination status. In an open letter, superintendent Dr. Jeff Schuler spelled out his and the board’s reasoning succinctly and sensibly:
The Board also accepted our recommendation that the first prevention strategy we lift is mandatory mask-wearing at all grade levels, as it offers individuals (both students and staff) and families a choice to continue wearing a face covering should they want to make that choice. Our administrators and staff will ensure that our schools remain safe, caring and respectful learning environments that are supportive of an individual’s choice on mask-wearing. As adults, we have an opportunity to model that behavior for our students
Schuler also included data in the letter, citing high vaccination rate and low case rates in DuPage County (Similar for another large school district with a large enrollment from DuPage County, Naperville’s D204, which Tuesday night voted ‘mask optional,’ citing local health data in DuPage County.) D200’s was a perfectly executed announcement and aligns with stated guidance from federal and state officials—what we say districts ‘should’ do does not mean they ‘must.’ Ignore outside voices, do what’s best for your community.
Wheaton did just that. But others are not adopting the Wheaton model, instead straying away from the local control directive they demanded from Governor J.B. Pritzker and public health agencies earlier this summer.
District 214, the second largest in Illinois that encompasses 13 schools, delayed any call on mask wearing until July 29. The same with District 95, in Lake Zurich. District 220 in Barrington, amidst cattle calls and howls at a raucous board meeting, voted in half measures—grades 6-12 mask optional, K-5 grades to be determined.
Watch this clip to see how much of a shitshow that meeting was:
There are other districts playing the kick-the-can game (not deciding, citing a need for more counsel “with local public health officials”) or, like St. Charles District 303, adopting bargained, yet slippery, measures.
—mask optional
—quarantine still necessary if an unvaccinated student or staff member comes in close contact with an individual who has tested positive
—quarantine likely unnecessary if student receives daily screening testing
And just whom has D303 contracted with to conduct its COVID-19 testing regimen?
You know that test…the one that Pritzker lied about last summer, about what ‘game-changer’ it was, bragging about its emergency use authorization, only to have the FDA deny his claims?
Yeah, that test.
District leaders will say in press releases that continued testing is a measure “to keep the community safe.”
But there is no data-driven justification for testing of asymptomatic children and in turn, many are adopting coercive approaches in an attempt to boost testing numbers. That’s what St. Charles 303 is doing with its vaccine/testing quarantine contingency guideline.
There remain questions on remote learning qualifications for the upcoming school year. Not in doubt is the de-emphasis on non-physical attendance and how much more difficult it will be for students to access remote learning than it was last school year.
The message D303 school leaders are sending to parents and students—get vaccinated or get tested. Otherwise, we can’t do much for you if exposed to the virus on school grounds.
It’s safe to characterize that dilemma as a public health shakedown, the hatchet men doing the squeezing employed by school districts.
But we’re seeing a lot of this racketeering today, aren’t we?
Big government using Big Tech to serve as state actors for their propaganda-driven initiatives?
Any district that mandates student mask wearing or adopts a pay-to-play strategy for testing is basically doing the same thing; assuming the role of psuedo-government actor for the State of Illinois and Feds.
And that’s a heckuva a lot more worrisome than the next mutation of Covid.
We’ve had a collision in this country over the last 16 months between corporate media fear selling and mass anxiety disorder. It’s a simple case of supply and demand—as long as Fauciists consume doomsday stories, the insatiable appetite will be satisfied.
For school districts this month, they can’t lose sight on what the fight was about in the first place.
Local decision-making control.
But in order to do so, they must determine between what’s the signal and what’s just noise.
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If schools open mask free and no one gets sick and dies, the jig is up for everyone.
Nothing screws up an invented narrative more than the truth