Yakima Newspaper – Share Your Opinion? Sure, But Why The Snark?

The editorial in today's Yakima Herald-Republic (YHR) is titled "Protecting Schoolkids-Health board should focus on our health, not politics".  Sounds reasonable enough IF we really knew or trusted the science behind the "health".  And it might be an easier sell if the YHR left the snark out of its sincere message of protective concern, like these:

"OK, let's try this one more time." 

"We don't live in a perfect world. Sorry"

"Just as gravity works whether you believe in it or not.."

"even if somebody on Facebook or Fox News assures you otherwise"

"brings us to the tiresome antics of a few members"

The YHR opinion writers said a couple of other things that concern me more than just the attitude in their writing as they expressed their concern for me and my child.

Quote #1 - "McKinney baselessly argued Wednesday night that kids are at less risk of COVID than adults.."

COVID cases in kids may be up, but nothing to the extent of COVID in adults, even the new variant is less of a risk for kids.  Dr. Barg says 200 kids per week are hospitalized across the nation.   Any child in the hospital is horrible, but where is the perspective? The CDC says "The current 7-day moving average of daily new cases is 114,190." 

Even with COVID lurking in the neighborhood, I can still do the math.  That's 799,330 new cases in a week (certainly not all hospitalized)..while 200 kid cases went to the hospital?  Seems like a lesser risk to me.

But what do I know...wait, don't we all worship at the altar of Harvard?  What do the big-brain people there have to say?   August 2, 2021 - "While the risk of COVID causing severe illness and hospitalization is much lower compared to adults, it’s important to remember that at least 491 children ages 0 to 17 years have died from COVID".    

Again, that's terrible. Again, where's the perspective?  As of August 12, 2021, Statista reports the number of both confirmed and presumptive positive cases of the COVID-19 disease reported in the United States had reached  36,268,057 with 617,096 deaths reported among these cases.  Consider 491 kids vs 617,096 total. Yet still, the opinion people at YHR write -  ""McKinney baselessly argued Wednesday night that kids are at less risk of COVID than adults.."  C'mon man.

Quote #2 - "McKinney also claimed that masks inhibit learning and socializing."

Claimed? Is there no proof? Is there no Settled Science, you know, like Climate Change?  Well, that is exactly what we have, as settled as that climate thing.

Not to give google all the love, but a quick check of first page stories searching for  "do masks inhibit learning and socialization?" and you get a number of stories that speak to all the potential impacts on learning and socialization and a few of the things we might do to help offset those impacts, which of course all teachers and parents will do because we live in a perfect world. Right?  oh..sorry...we don't.   Yup, settled as quicksand.

Writing in the Patriot Post, Mark Alexander points out the "trust deficit" related to masking, "In February 2020, Anthony “Flip-Flop” Fauci declared: “There is no reason for anyone right now in the United States, with regard to coronavirus, to wear a mask. … I think there’s this misperception that wearing a mask, even if you were in an area where there was transmission, is going to absolutely protect you.” 

Two weeks later, Surgeon General Jerome Adams declared: “Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching Coronavirus.”

A week after that, Fauci reiterated: “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is."

Do you remember that?  Millions do.  Know anybody who wore a mask and still got COVID?  Millions do. I did.

Mr. Alexander concludes that the people wearing masks are walking billboards for getting a vaccination.

The New England Journal of Medicine reported “Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era,”  “We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. … The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.”

Consider all of that for a moment won't you YHR opinion writers.  As you do, conservative thinker, blogger, writer, commentator, and Daily Wire host Matt Walsh of Young Americas took his turn addressing a Nashville, TN school board about their School Mask Policy.  This is what "both barrels" sounds like.