A Politician vs. A Doctor
- fionacsweet
- May 15, 2020
- 2 min read
By now, I feel as if everyone knows that President Donald Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci do not get along. This is unfortunate, as Trump is the leader of our country, and Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Fauci's views on COVID-19 err on the side of being "pretty careful, particularly when it comes to children." He feels that schools opening up should not be the number one priority currently. He is still hoping to mitigate damages significantly before any in-school learning can occur.
Meanwhile, Trump has been quoted saying, "Our country’s got to get back and it’s got to get back as soon as possible. And I don’t consider our country coming back if the schools are closed.” He has called on many of the United States' governors to reopen schools that were closed due to COVID-19.
States that have relaxed their shelter in place rules are already seeing the repercussions. In North Dakota and Colorado, they are seeing a large uptick in cases and deaths. Colorado's death toll just surpassed 1000 this week, with 20,000 positive cases. Both of these states have come together to talk with Trump about possibly reopening schools.
Now, what does an actual student think of this?
I think that I have to side with Dr. Fauci on this. Trust me, I want to get back to school as soon as possible because I miss being able to hang out with my friends. Distance learning is simply not as effective and it is so much more difficult to ask questions over email or Zoom than in person. Being cooped up at home every day is not fun. I lost my prom. The seniors lost their graduation. Yeah, not being at school is awful, but what might happen if we go back to school too early is even more awful.
Some of our teachers are in the high-risk group for getting the coronavirus. My school personally does not have the space to social distance everyone. Younger grades (such as kindergarten) will have an especially hard to almost impossible time learning how to social distance. The risk of a resurgence is also very likely, and flu season already spreads at schools like wildfire. I am personally not worried about myself if I contract COVID-19, as younger people are likely not to be hit as hard from it, but the larger fear is that I will give it to someone that is likely to suffer from it, such as my grandparents or one of my teachers. While reopening schools will help the economy, having devastating losses due to these reopenings will cripple it even more. In this situation, playing the long game is the best option.
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