Children have a higher chance of dying in a car accident, are you going to stop driving tomorrow, because you know a non-zero chance of dying is all you will accept.
Some numbers related to this claim:
In 2018 about 37,000 people died in the U.S. in motor vehicle accidents, not all of them were children.
Currently, about 250,000 people are dying per year from COVID19 in the U.S. Not all of them are children.
It's not clear to me that your claim is true. Granted, only a few COVID19 deaths are children, but how many auto fatalities involve children?
That’s not a typo - 31.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Ag...
130 died from flu.
675 died children in car accidents.
https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/child_passenger_safet...
Hyperbole aside, I think it's important to understand the risks and find appropriate compromises. Clearly "business as usual" is not the best course of action. But "shut everything down and wait until 2021" isn't very practical either. We missed our chance to contain the virus - but the world's not going to end.
I also think it's a "tale of two cities". There's a lot of political will to reopen the schools in rural areas that haven't been as deeply impacted by the virus itself. And rightly so - the risk in rural upstate New York is much lower than in Flushing, Queens. It's probably wisest to address this at a local level.
Everyone involved has to be COVID-19 tested and they are taking as many sensible precautions as they can. I realize this isn't an option for many, but if you can get on board with a good teacher it's win-win. Note that my friend is very vigilant about not spreading the bug — he's not an antimask type at all. It seems like a great option if it's possible.
I think the challenge systemwide is this further divides the privileged from the lowest income earners. It adds additional cost that even when pooled with others is outside the realm of affordable for many.
The only option for them will be to send kids back to school because they need to be able to work in order to feed their kids. Their choice is food/shelter vs low risk of death for children with COVID. Sucks, but we should at least understand why there is such a push to reopen schools.
The divide this creates though.....who knows what the long term consequences will be
Judging by how this pandemic has unfolded in America, we certainly aren't sharing the load equally.
Granted people older than that seem to be struggling a bit too.
I was pointing out that the language the commenter used made it seem like his children's opinions were not taken into consideration.
For simple analogy, imagine if he said "I have a wife myself, and I understand the risks" when insisting that his wife needs to go to a place many consider dangerous.