The long term cost of lock downs

[Anonymous]

Imagine a second lockdown....

No thank you.

[Anonymous]

Imagine a second lockdown....

That would be devastating.

[Anonymous]

Lock downs and forcing millions of people out of work to protect them from something slightly more serious than seasonal flu is stupid and evil.

[media]https://www.bitchute.com/video/mzicZ1rZvMoR/">https://www.bitchute.com/video/mzicZ1rZvMoR/[/media]

[Anonymous]

I didn't watch the whole video..



But, the part about the solution to the pandemic, isolation, inactivity are terrible recommendations.

[Anonymous]

This is from The Telegraph in the UK.



So was it all worthwhile? It's one of those questions to which we will probably never know the answer.



Personally, I take the view that the lockdown was a panicked over-reaction; it might have been better to have stuck with the original plan of learning to live with the virus, which if we had been better at testing, would have been perfectly feasible. This would not have saved the economy from a serious recession; behavioural changes alone would have ensured that. But it might not have been so deep.



Yet if virtually all other advanced economies, and many developing countries, are applying the lockdown strategy, it becomes politically very high risk to adopt alternative approaches, so from that perspective, the decision was almost inevitable. Once it became clear that the NHS could cope, however, the lockdown became less easy to justify. The longer it went on, the worse the economic costs. These ought to have been more properly weighed in the balance.

[Anonymous]

If casinos and restaurants can open safely, so can schools.



The risks of keeping schools closed far outweigh the benefits

Millions of young minds are going to waste



All around the world, children's minds are going to waste. As covid-19 surged in early April, more than 90% of pupils were shut out of school. Since then the number has fallen by one-third, as many classrooms in Europe and East Asia have reopened. But elsewhere progress is slow. Some American school districts, including Los Angeles and San Diego, plan to offer only remote learning when their new school year begins. Kenya's government has scrapped the whole year, leaving its children idle until January. In the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte says he may not let any children return to the classroom until a vaccine is found. South Africa has reopened casinos, but only a fraction of classrooms.



The new coronavirus poses a low risk to children. Studies suggest that under-18s are a third to a half less likely to catch the disease. Those under ten, according to British figures, are a thousand times less likely to die than someone aged between 70 and 79. The evidence suggests they are not especially likely to infect others. In Sweden staff at nurseries and primary schools, which never closed, were no more likely to catch the virus than those in other jobs.



However, the costs of missing school are huge. Children learn less, and lose the habit of learning. Zoom is a lousy substitute for classrooms. Poor children, who are less likely to have good Wi-Fi and educated parents, fall further behind their better-off peers. Parents who have nowhere to drop their children struggle to return to work. Mothers bear the heavier burden, and so suffer a bigger career setback. Children out of school are more likely to suffer abuse, malnutrition and poor mental health.



School closures are bad enough in rich countries. The harm they do in poor ones is much worse (see article). Perhaps 465m children being offered online classes cannot easily make use of them because they lack an internet connection. In parts of Africa and South Asia, families are in such dire straits that many parents are urging their children to give up their studies and start work or get married. The longer school is shut, the more will make this woeful choice. Save the Children, a charity, guesses that nearly 10m could drop out. Most will be girls.



Education is the surest path out of poverty. Depriving children of it will doom them to poorer, shorter, less fulfilling lives. The World Bank estimates that five months of school closures would cut lifetime earnings for the children who are affected by $10trn in today's money, equivalent to 7% of current annual gdp.



With such catastrophic potential losses, governments should be working out how to reopen schools as soon as it is safe. This should not be a partisan issue, as it has sadly become in America, where some people assume it is a bad idea simply because President Donald Trump proposes it. In some countries teachers' unions have been obstructive, partly out of justified concern for public health as cases climb, but also because teachers' interests are not the same as children's—especially if they are being paid whether they work or not. The main union in Los Angeles urges that schools remain closed until a long wishlist of demands has been met, including the elusive dream of universal health care in America. Children cannot wait that long.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/07/18/the-risks-of-keeping-schools-closed-far-outweigh-the-benefits?fsrc=newsletter&utm_campaign=the-economist-today&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=2020-07-17&utm_content=article-link-1">https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/ ... cle-link-1">https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/07/18/the-risks-of-keeping-schools-closed-far-outweigh-the-benefits?fsrc=newsletter&utm_campaign=the-economist-today&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=2020-07-17&utm_content=article-link-1

[Anonymous]

Education is not an essential service, but alcohol and lottery tickets are. When progs are calling the shots nothing makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Education is not an essential service, but alcohol and lottery tickets are. When progs are calling the shots nothing makes sense.

It's ridiculous.

[Renee]

Schools are nothing but leftist indoctrination camps...Keep them closed. This keeps the bullshit curriculum right where parents can keep a close eye on it. For too long we have allowed our public schools to mold opinion and ideology in young minds. It's time to put a stop to it and remove some of the power teachers unions have over what can and cannot be taught to our kids.



Furthermore closing schools should by all rights lower taxes and hopefully force townships to deal with the exorbitant salaries paid to administrators, principles and superintendents.

[Anonymous]

Schools are nothing but leftist indoctrination camps...Keep them closed. This keeps the bullshit curriculum right where parents can keep a close eye on it. For too long we have allowed our public schools to mold opinion and ideology in young minds. It's time to put a stop to it and remove some of the power teachers unions have over what can and cannot be taught to our kids.



Furthermore closing schools should by all rights lower taxes and hopefully force townships to deal with the exorbitant salaries paid to administrators, principles and superintendents.

Ah, but Renee, parents count on the schools remaining open. I never had kids myself, but I have friends that do. They want the schools open in September. As far as I know, my province is opening schools in September.

[Gaon]

My daughter hopes school resumes in the fall. She misses her friends.

[Anonymous]

My daughter hopes school resumes in the fall. She misses her friends.

I hope she can return in the fall too.

[Anonymous]

On Sunday, Toronto mayor John Tory sent a letter to Premier Doug Ford containing six recommended rules to be imposed on these establishments, which have absorbed a catastrophic financial hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic.



Tory is calling for mandatory masks for all staff and patrons, earlier closing hours, occupancy restrictions, and for all patrons to provide contact information that is to be kept for 30 days, to allow for tracing as needed.



Asking everyone for their contact information is not going to go over well. That's a bit of a safety issue. They might get a lot of false information. I know I won't be going out to sports lounges anymore if I have to give information.

[Anonymous]

Alberta is reopening K-12 schools in September.

 

[Anonymous]

Taiwan and Sweden never closed their schools.



The Germans and Danes opened back up in May. First they reopened elementary schools, then junior and senior highs. In most cases, there were few consequences for students, staff or families.



There were infections, of course, but not many. Few grew seriously ill and there were few examples of community spread.



Last month, 1,500 members of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in the U.K. signed a letter urging the British government to reopen schools this fall or risk "scarring the life chances of a generation of young people."