The legacy media is finally questioning school closures and draconian lockdowns. What took so long?
For months, dissent from the lockdown mantra was hard to see in places like the New York Times. Finally, questions are now being asked.
The headline in the Boston Globe was ominous: “Boston College COVID-19 outbreak worries epidemiologists, students, community.”
Between Aug. 16 and Sept. 9, Boston College reported 81 undergraduates testing positive on campus. The experts said they were alarmed. “It’s very hard to put the genie back in the bottle,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of the infectious disease division at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Now they are on a massive chase, and time is not on their side.”
Boston College did get its Covid situation under control, and it didn’t take that long. At the end of September, the school was reporting only 26 positive cases on campus per week. For the week of Nov. 16-22, there were 51 positive cases.
Over the weekend, the Globe ran a different kind of story about Covid on college campuses. The headline has a triumphant tone: “From campus, a lesson in controlling the virus.”
While cases continue to rise across Massachusetts, colleges have succeeded in flattening the curve. The average positive test rate in Massachusetts higher education has never exceeded 0.37 percent this fall. The statewide positive test rate was above 3 percent last week.
The ability of colleges to contain the spread is just one of the many lessons we’ve learned since the start of the pandemic. When the world first locked down in March, closing schools and shuttering all aspects of social life was more than just the conventional wisdom — it was the daily drumbeat. Anybody who questioned the science behind draconian things like closing beaches and mandating people wear masks at all times — even while outside alone — risked being called a MAGA head and grandma killer.
Mercifully, we’ve eased up on some of the most outrageous aspects of pandemic theatre, though social media feeds were filled this summer with misleading pictures of crowded beaches. But other socially devastating lockdown-era policies, such as closing public schools and locking old people in their rooms, were still touted as the only responsible choice. Dissent from the lockdown mantra was hard to see in places like the New York Times and Washington Post — never mind the pandemic porn that consumed MSNBC and CNN.
But that’s beginning to change. This month, the NYT ran an op-ed from one of its most prominent columnists, Nick Kristof, with an admission about school closings: “When Trump Was Right and Many Democrats Wrong.”
When New York City announced Nov. 18 it was once again shuttering schools due to rising Covid rates, the backlash from New York media people was swift. Andrew Cuomo, once lauded as a shutdown hero, was being asked contentious questions about his haphazard plan at a press conference. Opponents pointed to the incredibly low transmission rate of 0.16 percent in New York City public schools; New York Magazine ran a satirical piece asking if the kids could go to school in restaurants.
Overnight, the view on closing schools dramatically shifted within the pages of the Times. At the end of October, the paper ran a story about how schoolchildren are unlikely to fuel virus surges, quoting a litany of scientists. Then the proverbial floodgates opened. Stories highlighting the tales of pained mothers and struggling children have run on seemingly a daily basis since then. Recently, the Times ran a feature chronicling Baltimore public school teachers who are back in the classroom, extolling their superintendent, who pushed to open schools for at-risk students.
On Sunday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the nation’s largest school district will began a phased reopening next week. The outrage propelled the sudden reversal.
The change on school closings is just one example of how doubts that were once dismissed as reckless are now moving to the mainstream. On Sunday, The Washington Post ran a column questioning the stringent social distancing measures on college campuses, and how they’re destroying the mental state of some students. “Covid-19 is more likely to rattle college-age kids’ minds than their bodies,” writes Lizette Alvarez.
Just a few months ago, people who advocated for college campuses to be open at all were called the grim reaper. Now, the WaPo is running columns advocating for campuses to operate with fewer restrictions.
Perhaps the most dramatic about-face is the conversation surrounding nursing homes. “Isolate the elderly” is the closest thing we’ve had to a universal mantra throughout this disaster. But now, the obvious drawbacks to locking old people in their rooms for months on end are starting to make their way to the mainstream news media. NBC News recently ran a long piece on the epidemic of elderly people now dying and suffering from isolation.
And how safe are these draconian measures keeping our senior citizens, really? Despite maximum security prison-like restrictions on social activity, roughly 40 percent of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. are linked to nursing homes. In Massachusetts, that number stands at 60 percent.
If masked visitors were allowed into nursing homes more regularly, how would that contribute to the spread of Covid? Do the mental rewards of social contact outweigh the risks of more exposure? These are questions that deserve more worthwhile answers than flip dismissals about sending grandpa to his grave. Finally, they’re getting their due.
Unfortunately, it’s too late in many cases. The lockdown militia have ignored the incredible tolls of social isolation and school closures, and worst yet, outright mocked them. Dissent was discouraged, and now, a generation of kids could be lost.
It’s never wrong to ask questions. As we’ve seen over the last 10 months, the results can be devastating.
Image via COVID-19 data for schools