I can confirm what you said as my daughter is at Georgetown. This insanity has nothing to do with “science” and everything to do with centralized power, control and money. The chickens will eventually come home to roost. This is a mental health crisis and the victims will be a generation of lonely children who have been taught to be anxious, afraid and fearful of taking any risk. We are the majority and it is long overdue for us to stand up as parents and protectors of our children to push back against this tyranny. If anyone has suggestions on how we can organize to fight this together, please share.
Perhaps students can choose a designated date to no longer wear their masks. If nearly the entire student body shows up mask-less who will be able to stop them?
Earnest question: did you push them to be compliant to your wishes to make parenting easier and keep things in control, or did you attempt to encourage them to be critical thinkers and take risks? I recognize you only have so much control as a parent as there is a lot that's DNA and a lot that's from the society, but wondering. Also what's your personal disposition - the half of DNA they got from you?
While my husband and I are fairly conservative/ libertarian, our neighborhood and school system is very liberal. My younger son is a free thinker and more conservative then we are.
And kids will sometimes emulate but sometimes purposefully rebel against their parents. I recall a friend who was rather comically a 90's version of Reagan youth because his parents were hippies. It didn't come naturally to him and he was much more laid back after college.
One reason I avoided the local private school like the plague is that they preached a strong brand of "creating excellent global citizens" in a way that sounded to me like they were creating the sheep of the elite. The rate of outstanding individual success from graduates from our public schools is much higher; in contrast, the private school hasn't produced anyone with an exceptional set of accomplishments. I do wonder if the two are correlated.
Our political left has been very open about its efforts to indoctrinate kids in this way. Why is anyone surprised?
Many a right-wing idiot has theorized that the Right will defeat the Left in the long run because left-wing people don't reproduce. But why do Lefties need to reproduce when they can simply steal everyone else's children?
This is a great idea. Absent voluntary compliance, rules can be enforced en-masse only by police powers which the universities don't have. If a group of 50 students can bring a school to its knees by "occupying" the chancellor's office to demand more DEI hires, why can't the same technique be applied to COVID rules?
Because those 50 students 'occupying' the chancellor's office tend to get the full weight of the left-leaning media to support their cause, and anyone who disagrees gets shouted down as being a "bigot" or "phobe" of some sort.
Meanwhile the 50 students demanding sanity from the COVID rules would be chased off campus and branded as anti-science/anti-mask/anti-vaxx nutters- and probably also 'bigoted' and 'phobic' just for good measure, since that insult gets thrown at anyone who disagrees with any policy supported by the progressive left, regardless of topic.
It's difficult for kids to stand up against the college tyranny. My daughter at U of A was followed by a peer from her class because my daughter was wearing a "fake mask" (to fit in -- she didn't want to create a conflict, but she has a medical exemption from wearing a mask and the school refuses to allow her into classes if she doesn't wear it.) The student wanted to know what dorm she was in so she could "report her." U of A decided to make their mask mandate permanent until there are NO CASES. So my daughter transferred to another Arizona college that has no mandates. It was ridiculous that I had to pay room and board for her to take zoom classes and not participate in-person. (She was eventually banned from in-person classes and only one professor -- her lone science class!!! -- didn't care if she wore a mask.) Most students just want to fit in.
I think we all need to follow the example of Dr. Makary and others like him. Keep pushing the best science available in front of decisionmakers and demand that they explain the gap between their policies and our best understanding of the facts.
I'm even more worried about the younger children. This is a travesty and a tragedy and yes, the chickens will come home to roost but not is a good way.
I am very worried. Is this a backlash against schools taking them selves way too seriously. I have form fatigue, filling out a form every time my child is sick. I have four children , if they are sick for 4 days, that's 16 forms. Who has time to fill out 16 forms? And copy all the negative test results and send the results . . .the rules have become so strict, I see the kids learning to comply, and think differently behind closed doors, I see us producing a sneaky society at best. Because when the rules begin to make no sense..and kids are dying from stress. . . Now.. and when the rules don't allow people to be human. . . now... and when the rules are set by people who keep changing them and can't be trusted, the citizens get sick of it.
Kids will end up backing off of all rules and seeing their teachers as tyrants to be fearful of. Not exactly a great learning environment. But the truth rings clearly in the hearts and minds of humanity, I do believe this, and they in their own way will have to buck the system. The people who were once liberal and free- thinking and encouraged engagement and independent thoughts are now the same people who have become beholden to rules and control. Its a sickness of humanity that happens in cycles. Control is like greed, it thickens and deepens. Hobbits become Golum. I would like to take the above article and read it out loud at the PTA meeting or the school board meeting without a mask. What's at stake for me? Loss of friends, my business erodes, the "mean girls" brigade will surely attack me for being uneducated and for being discriminatory against the weaker more vulnerable kids . . . and so I waffle.
But what will get me to do it? My son, who has only seen a masked elementary school. Who sits six feet apart from other kids at his desk at lunch in the cafeteria, who has the biggest smile in the world and is never seen wearing it inside a school. Who loves to sing, but isn't allowed. Who makes the other girls feel comfortable and charmed and secure. Who finds the skinny avenues for connection in school. He is learning this at age, 5, 6 and 7.... this is not America. This sounds like I'm describing China. Let's be honest here. And I must have the courage to speak up! Because kids are not dying from Covid. So wish me luck in my Massachusetts town that is revisiting Salem.
This is just a sad story and we need more of these stories to finally break through to the masses that this behavior is NOT NORMAL and should never be normalized. My college girl -- who transferred from University of Arizona to Grand Canyon University this semester because of the mask mandate -- told me that her friends at U of A are now fighting a new school rule -- that no one can wear cloth masks, they have to be surgical masks. NEITHER stops the spread of viruses, but that doesn't matter. They are trying to force everyone to conform. And what people don't see in some of the deep blue states is that there are many places around the country that have lived fairly normal for the last year, year and a half -- no masks, no mandates, kids in school, no mandatory testing. If you're sick, stay home. No quarantines because you may have been exposed to someone who may have had COVID. The asymptomatic spread BS coupled with masks led to this fear of everyone, fear of a virus of which 99.5% of people under 70 survive --- and 99.998% of kids survive.
That was a smart move by your daughter... I just keep wondering if we should move or if we need to stand up and fight. I mean my entire extended family lives here so I think its time to fight.
I think people need to stand up and speak the truth. Eventually the truth will be heard. We left California for Arizona before COVID, but if we were still there, we'd probably leave. The mentality is so different with my friends and family still there. Most people in AZ don't wear masks, and other than government buildings no one told me to leave if I didn't have a mask on, and I avoided places that I knew would be mini-dictators about them. At my church on Christmas -- totally packed Catholic church, standing room only, overflow room, etc -- only about 5-7% of people had masks on.
My son graduated from GU Law last year and he was fortunate to have the first half+ of his experience in person. The remainder of second year and all of third year was a remote experience, living with us, with whom he fortunately has a very good relationship. The school had the audacity to raise the tuition 5%, and then given a 2% "remote discount".
I'm in Arizona and can count on one hand the times I wore a mask and only when forced to. I received many dirty looks in grocery stores but most of the clerks wish they didn't have to wear them. Now only about 20% of people wear them (and 10% in my church) and no dirty looks.
Imagine a healthcare system in which these same people are in-charge of all medical care that you and your loved ones can receive. Imagine THEY have to authorize your treatments - AND you are required to take whatever treatment they mandate. Do you really want healthcare under THEIR direction?
That’s the system they want. They have all the answers…your job is simply not to ask any questions - just say, baah…
I expect some lunatic will file charges against Dr. Makary for this article with the Maryland licensing board trying to get his medical license pulled. Think that that’s crazy? It’s happening across America to any doctor who is viewed as promoting “vaccine hesitancy”. They’re being investigated with the intent to terminate their license.
And just remember — this ain’t going to stop — you’re next!
I am almost more worried about the level of compliance happening in these situations. The rules themselves are awful, but it seems like the students are bound to them and willing to turn on one another. Makes me feel physically ill.
Students at Ivy schools have spent their entire lives preparing to be members of the elite. Most have literally been groomed from childhood. So 1) they're not going to jeopardize their shot at elite power, and 2) acknowledging elite incompetence would force them to question the value of their "education" to join this same cadre of people.
I suppose they may also realize that a society conditioned to meekly follow whatever the today's powerful demand is useful for their future ambitions.
I spent considerable time in East Germany in the 1960s. The major difference I see is that the East Germans KNEW their government and government media spewed propaganda and often lied to them. Many Americans still believe the legacy media and trust the public health bureaucracy.
Yes, too many Americans do not yet know that the corporate media empire is a propaganda machine. They are so brainwashed that they can’t see it, or won’t invest the time to find the truth.
My neighbor, who is literally named Karen, is anything but complacent right now. She's been activated! You will follow the rules or she is on it like white on rice...like she was born for this.
I'm a Georgetown Alum and I'm embarrassed for Georgetown. Groupthink dominates a university that once prided itself on open inquiry. I stopped giving in 2020 when they suspended school, and I told them why. It's obscene to deprive students of an in-person education when they're paying enormous tuition, and furthermore when Covid bares negligible risk to 99.99% of them, and those who have high risk can choose to stay away. Sadly, my classmates who have gone into medicine are for the most part obsessed with Covid fear. And when you cite things like infection fatality rates and hospitalization rates by age, they get philosophical, as if our public policy decisions are cost-free. Most of them will continue to get paid whether we lock schools down or not, or whether we allow people to continue operating their small businesses, bars, restaurants, etc. Likewise, they support vaccine passports, which are equally pointless as well as a scary precedent.
Mostly I am frustrated that all we have done is drag out the inevitable at extreme economic and psychological cost, in addition to the increases in suicides, overdoses, and other preventable deaths. We have not counted these deaths and we probably never will, because we thrived on the illusion of control. When Covid was discovered in blood samples in Washington from September 2019 (IIRC), everyone should have said "game over." There was no chance of containing this virus when there was no realistic vaccination strategy for places like poor areas of Africa and Asia. where the disease would proliferate, mutate, and eventually exploit the narrow targeting of mRNA vaccines. And sure enough, a prediction you could have made 2 years ago has come true. We have Omicron, a gift to herd immunity. Let's give it a hug.
"She told me she is thinking about “transferring to an SEC school just to have an in-person experience.” As a real estate agent in Atlanta, my database is 90% leads from New York, New Jersey and California.
I also live in Atlanta and I've seen a surge of New York license plates the past 2 years. I'm not sure people are self-aware enough to abandon their past beliefs and vote differently.
Maybe not, though. NoVA experienced a blue wave due to the enormous growth of the federal government in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. So, the people headed there would naturally be friendly to "big government politics". The case of folks fleeing CA and NY is a bit different from that, so there is some hope!
Just because someone moved from a blue state doesn't mean they vote "blue." Plenty of people leaving blue states in the past couple of years are doing it to get away from high-tax, woke-policy states. Case in point: Florida which has been an historically Democratic state (yes that is true) just crossed a threshold in 2021 with more voters registered as Republicans than Democrats breaking a decades-old Democrat party advantage in Florida.
That is actually my greatest concern. I would hope that if they had to pack up and LEAVE these states there may be some self-reflection. The other way to look at it is they were the people who are least tolerant of this kind of leftist nonsense, so they were the ones most motivated to get out. The die-hard leftists are the ones who never link their votes over the past 20 years with the reality on the ground. They will never change.
From my own personal experience (CA to FL), my CA friends who are Democrats of a kind (or I don't know how to explain it, let's just say the ones who voted against the recall) asked me how in the hell I would move to Florida with its god-awful governor. My friends who are less hooked into the Blue No Matter Who narrative, were jealous. From my vantage point, "Blues" see FL and TX as pariah states and would never leave their blue cocoon. Those who are fed up with the blue narrative are the ones leaving.
Correct. It's BlueAnon: the curious ability to look at NY compared to FL and convince yourself that FL is the one doing it wrong. No lockdowns, lower case rates and lower death rates, a thriving economy... man those Floridians are INSANE!!! :-)
It's arguable. I crunched the numbers today and during the delta wave, Florida went commando while California locked down. Result was in Florida, cases peaked at 1250 per million per day, four times higher than California. Then after the peak, the plateau was two times higher in California because you don't stop it completely and it trickles on. But Florida got to be worry-free for those three months. Total for the end of 2021 was about 2x the cases and deaths in Florida, but much happier people overall.
If you look at the success versus failure within liberal democracies that are not islands, you were basically able to save maximum 0.1% of the population by extreme methods and shutdown practices.
2 years of pandemic is about 3% of overall life expectancy. So the utlitarian calculation is: did we help people overall? Even assuming that life only was 10% worse for everyone during the pandemic, that would mean a negative of -0.3% negative life effect (could be converted to QALY for people familiar), triple the negative impact versus the 0.1% of lives you saved (who also weren't going to live very long on top of that).
The suggestion is definitely that shutdowns were not so great in 20/20 hindsight, versus plowing ahead using basic precautions. But it's arguable. I wish everyone would admit no one knows exactly what's best. It's like blaming your friend for imperfect evasion decisions instead of the tsunami hitting both of you.
My wife and I have seen most of our close friends leave the people's republic of California for Wyoming, Texas, Nevada, Arizona and other states. I can guarantee you none of them will bring traditional "California" politics with them. They were all fed up with the state's lunacy and the sort of groupthink that Dr. Makary mentions.
What schools are in the SEC? The South Eastern Conference includes universities across the South and Mid-South in the 11 states that span from South Carolina west to Texas.
I have been an employee of one of the above mentioned universities for over 20 years. Last summer our lab was tasked with developing and implementing the COVID testing technology (it's really not that different from what we normally do and we had a lot of the equipment and know-how already). After reading this I am completely undone. I had no idea what was being done to students who tested positive. I go through the data weekly and I can assure you that MANY of the positives have extremely high CT values (so high that they are not good enough to send to public testing authorities), but I highly doubt anyone knows what their CT values are for their positive test. We even fairly recently were asked to discover if we could tell if someone had actually swabbed (students trying to prove they were negative - good for you) by testing for human genes (BTW, we can).
The end of December we were given the booster mandate (January 21) which happens to be 2 days after I am even eligible to get a booster as I delayed getting vaccinated as long as possible - I have had the virus. I wasn't planning on getting the booster - don't know how keen they are on approving medical/religious exemptions, but now I don't think I even want to work there anymore. The information in your story is heartbreaking to me. I feel duped and complicit.
Anyone at a fine Jesuit institution should know what this means: And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.
I am too in the same boat as you. Had covid, vaccinated and now my public employer is requiring me to get boosted. I will not comply. If we hand over our bodily autonomy we will never recover it.
I am so sorry - it’s such a difficult situation to face. I’ve dedicated 25 years of my life to the field of histocompatability and immunogenetics. I am a very valuable employee and I pose very little risk to anyone. I am hopeful the Supreme Court can intervene. Otherwise I won’t be employed much longer if an exemption isn’t issued for me. I love my job and my co-workers. It’s truly heartbreaking. Best wishes Sofia in your fight.
Was it Hillary who said never let a good crisis go to waste? That's what they are doing. Covid was the campaign in 2020. It has been a godsend for the left, who are using it to increase government control of life across the country, something they'd otherwise not be able to do. Republicans should be hammering them on this topic, opposing mandates of all kinds. And any moderate sane Democrats who exist.
And it's unconscionable what they've done to children during this pandemic. Anytime I see a child having to wear a mask my blood boils. I cannot stand it. I'm in my 30's and can't stand wearing a mask. A kid who is not at risk should be able to live life freely and enjoy it. These hysterics are in effect destroying life in order to save it. And of course they're not even doing that.
Thank you for writing this about kids. My son is a teenager on the autism spectrum. We were so looking forward to high school, where he is in a great program with kids like him who are bright but socially behind their peers. In the middle of his freshmen year in 2020, he is sent home. Now he is a junior, and has spent every semester except for one either at home or at school with a mask. It’s an absolute crime what we have done to children, yet no one will be held to account for it.
They absolutely should be; Republicans need to grow a spine, if they went after this issue hard imo they'd make major gains. The healthcare establishment has been so corrupted this pandemic, and it's kids who are feeling it the worst. It's insane that we can't recognize that this pandemic is a threat to older people and those with comorbidities primarily, we should be focused on protecting them, instead of needlessly focusing on kids. For no discernible reason, and with many obviously detrimental effects.
Elite Republicans and Democrats are pretty much lockstep on "The Science." (Among other thing$.) It's the Uni-party and their highly compensated flying monkeys vs. the people on this one.
Every mechanism of this charade has been crafted to reduce people's motivation to do so. Right down to the incessant masking- reduces oxygen levels just enough to create a sub- clinical, sustained level of apathy and confusion. Only takes 5% or so. Then you are not the fully functioning person you were before the mask. You will only find mask cheerleading at the top of the Googles though.
They're grossly overpaid campus administrators with too much power. They're the ones with the speech codes, the pronouns, and so on, and why tuition has exploded in the last 30 years.
In Germany, in 1933 or 1934, they would have happily been "coordinated" and coopted, I'm sure.
Maybe. I don't think one can observe a person's irrationally authoritarian reaction to one situation and extrapolate that the person would react the same way in every situation. There are always a lot of different influences with different magnitudes acting on people.
Well you might think I’m talking about a larger group than what I’m saying. There’s the people who went along with it and the people who were aggressive.
I'm not saying your hypothesis is unreasonable, only that, in the absence of a lot more information that we can't possibly get, the evaluation remains "maybe."
Well you don’t want to trivialize it by comparing budget cuts to Nazism. At the same time you don’t want to wait, out of deference, until something equally bad happens before you say something.
Someone recently commented on one of these substack articles that their college age daughter wore a mask outside because "she didn't want people to think she's a republican."
At Harvard, the testing “cadence” for vaccinated dorm residents must be tested 3 times a week. They must follow eating rules:
“Practice ‘Consume & Cover’ — Consume your meal and immediately mask up when done. Use the ‘Quick Sip Rule’ — When drinking, lower your mask, take a sip, and then promptly cover your mouth and nose. If you’re taking your time between bites and sips, put your mask back on.”
How do we push back? Most students just follow the rules in a half-assed passive aggressive way. From what I hear from my son, the “activist” type students (who like to protest against putting criminals in jails) actually support these measures because they feel safer.
Almost as frightening as these unscientific, draconian, and cruel policies is the the students' "passive-aggressive" compliance. This does not bode well for the future of our country.
It's the reduced oxygen levels from the mask enforcement. I've seen what what even a 5-10% short term reduction in oxygen does to people first hand, before all of this started. They seem like themselves, but they are *not* themselves. They are much more malleable, persuadable and fearful.
But I guess kids that go to Harvard are being groomed to be the next elite in our country. So, yeh - practice until you make it to the top and can shout from the roof tops: do as I say, not as I do.
I work for a university... these policies have nothing at all to do with protecting students, they are driven by professors and instructors. Their unions (yes, professors have unions for collective bargaining!) continue to push for these insane policies, while administration continues to instruct classroom teachers to "provide academic accommodations" to support student mental health. It feels like satire.
Absolutely. I am university faculty too. Many of my colleagues remain terrified. It seems from my vantage point it's about the unreasonable demands of panic- driven educutors, at university as well as k12. We are pandering to these people. It has to stop.
MLinus...It is easy, when we overpay these people running the Universities, they get spoiled and then they show "the true me" while playing chess, they push their subjects.
How do we Cut their pay, coaches included? Wont happen, but nice, give the student affordability...thanks.
Dr. Makary has been a voice of reason through this whole drama. Meanwhile, college administrators at wealthy, elite colleges have not been voices of reason. And the kids have been scarily compliant through all of it. What happened? Where are the angry protests? Where are the signs and open rebellion? Oh yeah, progressive dogma runs rampant through these universities, which encourages this exact compliance and behavior.
It's really hard to believe this is really happening, and that people are going along with it. Where is this heading? What will we be facing in 10 years, if people don't stand up against all of this nonsense?
Reduced oxygen due to masking produces a level of confusion and apathy that is very beneficial to our political elites and overseers. People become much more malleable and they are completely unaware that they have muzzled their higher level thinking and there is only so much of it left to navigate what is put in front of them. Believe it because it's true. The masks are the icing on this cake.
My college daughter and many of her friends know all this is complete unmitigated bullshit, but there is immense social pressure to conform. She has been shouldered out of in-person sorority meetings because she doesn’t want to wear a mask, and elected to not perform with her marching band at a recent bowl game because even though she has no risk factors at all and has had covid and is also vaccinated, they were demanding she get boosted and consent to wear a mask at all times (including in her hotel room except while in the restroom). She drew the line and said no, and drew firm criticism from her brain dead “friends” but also private messages of support. No one would stand up for her up publicly however.
The seemingly intentional obfuscation from university administrations about the radically different risk profiles of their students says everything you need to know about the motives of our technocratic elites and how fragile and delicately constituted these people are - so scared of dying that they're afraid to actually live, a mentality made possible after having spent their entire lives coddled and indentured to creature comforts, bubbled from risk and real adversity.
Ordering double-vaxed-and-boosted students to submit to this kind of college lifestyle is borderline sociopathic, and this covid bureaucracy they've constructed under the guise of benevolence will not go away even in the event that a cure is discovered - they'll claim some asinine justification for keeping this vague coercive public health apparatus around for good.
The Academic bubble they live in is protected by a very deep and a very wide mote. It has protected them for a very long time and will continue to protect them for the foreseeable future. It is, in my opinion, one of the pillars of capitalism that needs to be disrupted in a very painful way. My only hope is that some very smart people see the opportunity and seize the day.
How heart-breaking and insane is this sentence: "I spoke to several students who were holed up. One of them told me she would sometimes call a friend to come and wave at her through the window, just to see a human face."
These insane, ridiculous policies make me want to scream from the rooftops. If my local school district tries to go remote again, I'll be the first one out there protesting. Stupid shit like this is always about the money. My question is who is benefiting from these policies.
My S is a freshmen at Penn. They were all required to have double vaccination to attend in the Fall. They had mandatory Covid testing every 2 weeks (you couldn't get in to classrooms/dorm if you didn't go submit to your test) and they were required to wear masks in all indoor settings. Despite this, he had a wonderful fall semester full of fun and social activities. The last couple of weeks before school let out in December, the positive tests started happening. His close friend tested positive (she had no symptoms) and was put in isolation for 10 days. She couldn't leave and all meals were brought to her. She never developed a single symptom. Truly, as a parent, this disgusted me and seemed like some psych-op experiment (e.g. how much will they tolerate before complaining/melting down)? There were kids who tested positive the day before going home and, as a result, spent Christmas in isolation in the Covid dorm. 10 days. Rarely a symptom. What are we doing and why, as parents, are we allowing this to continue? When my daughter left school, I believe the Penn Covid Statistics said there were 148 positive cases, all students and it represented 1.27% positivity. No hospitalizations. What are we doing?
I thank Dr. Makary for being one of the few who have spoken up during this time. Where are the doctors at the "prestigious" UPenn Medical School and Hospital? Why aren't they also saying "enough is enough?" These are young adults who have already sacrificed so much in the name of "the virus." At this point, we have significant data proving it is not harmful to this group of people. Please, listen to this physician and make better decisions so that the next generation doesn't hate us all for what we did to them? Those of us lucky enough to have attended college remember the fun that can happen. The experimentation, the socialization and the FREEDOM that we felt. I wish that I could bring the 80's to my son. It would blow his mind.
I can confirm what you said as my daughter is at Georgetown. This insanity has nothing to do with “science” and everything to do with centralized power, control and money. The chickens will eventually come home to roost. This is a mental health crisis and the victims will be a generation of lonely children who have been taught to be anxious, afraid and fearful of taking any risk. We are the majority and it is long overdue for us to stand up as parents and protectors of our children to push back against this tyranny. If anyone has suggestions on how we can organize to fight this together, please share.
Perhaps students can choose a designated date to no longer wear their masks. If nearly the entire student body shows up mask-less who will be able to stop them?
Unfortunately, my kids (17, 19 & 21) are very compliant. They feed in to the group think and virtue signaling.
They have no independent or critical thinking. They think the government is there to help them.
I think I’m most scared of how the youth of today just falls in to line with out any hesitation.
Yes. Very troubling
Earnest question: did you push them to be compliant to your wishes to make parenting easier and keep things in control, or did you attempt to encourage them to be critical thinkers and take risks? I recognize you only have so much control as a parent as there is a lot that's DNA and a lot that's from the society, but wondering. Also what's your personal disposition - the half of DNA they got from you?
While my husband and I are fairly conservative/ libertarian, our neighborhood and school system is very liberal. My younger son is a free thinker and more conservative then we are.
:(
And kids will sometimes emulate but sometimes purposefully rebel against their parents. I recall a friend who was rather comically a 90's version of Reagan youth because his parents were hippies. It didn't come naturally to him and he was much more laid back after college.
One reason I avoided the local private school like the plague is that they preached a strong brand of "creating excellent global citizens" in a way that sounded to me like they were creating the sheep of the elite. The rate of outstanding individual success from graduates from our public schools is much higher; in contrast, the private school hasn't produced anyone with an exceptional set of accomplishments. I do wonder if the two are correlated.
Our political left has been very open about its efforts to indoctrinate kids in this way. Why is anyone surprised?
Many a right-wing idiot has theorized that the Right will defeat the Left in the long run because left-wing people don't reproduce. But why do Lefties need to reproduce when they can simply steal everyone else's children?
This is a great idea. Absent voluntary compliance, rules can be enforced en-masse only by police powers which the universities don't have. If a group of 50 students can bring a school to its knees by "occupying" the chancellor's office to demand more DEI hires, why can't the same technique be applied to COVID rules?
Because those 50 students 'occupying' the chancellor's office tend to get the full weight of the left-leaning media to support their cause, and anyone who disagrees gets shouted down as being a "bigot" or "phobe" of some sort.
Meanwhile the 50 students demanding sanity from the COVID rules would be chased off campus and branded as anti-science/anti-mask/anti-vaxx nutters- and probably also 'bigoted' and 'phobic' just for good measure, since that insult gets thrown at anyone who disagrees with any policy supported by the progressive left, regardless of topic.
I was thinking they could burn their masks
It's difficult for kids to stand up against the college tyranny. My daughter at U of A was followed by a peer from her class because my daughter was wearing a "fake mask" (to fit in -- she didn't want to create a conflict, but she has a medical exemption from wearing a mask and the school refuses to allow her into classes if she doesn't wear it.) The student wanted to know what dorm she was in so she could "report her." U of A decided to make their mask mandate permanent until there are NO CASES. So my daughter transferred to another Arizona college that has no mandates. It was ridiculous that I had to pay room and board for her to take zoom classes and not participate in-person. (She was eventually banned from in-person classes and only one professor -- her lone science class!!! -- didn't care if she wore a mask.) Most students just want to fit in.
Vote with our feet. Businesses/ schools avoid any that try to push us around
your daughter is getting a real world lesson in political science
College students successfully demonstrated against the Vietnam war. Maybe some buildings need to be occupied!!
I think we all need to follow the example of Dr. Makary and others like him. Keep pushing the best science available in front of decisionmakers and demand that they explain the gap between their policies and our best understanding of the facts.
We will have to fight harder then that
I'm even more worried about the younger children. This is a travesty and a tragedy and yes, the chickens will come home to roost but not is a good way.
I am very worried. Is this a backlash against schools taking them selves way too seriously. I have form fatigue, filling out a form every time my child is sick. I have four children , if they are sick for 4 days, that's 16 forms. Who has time to fill out 16 forms? And copy all the negative test results and send the results . . .the rules have become so strict, I see the kids learning to comply, and think differently behind closed doors, I see us producing a sneaky society at best. Because when the rules begin to make no sense..and kids are dying from stress. . . Now.. and when the rules don't allow people to be human. . . now... and when the rules are set by people who keep changing them and can't be trusted, the citizens get sick of it.
Kids will end up backing off of all rules and seeing their teachers as tyrants to be fearful of. Not exactly a great learning environment. But the truth rings clearly in the hearts and minds of humanity, I do believe this, and they in their own way will have to buck the system. The people who were once liberal and free- thinking and encouraged engagement and independent thoughts are now the same people who have become beholden to rules and control. Its a sickness of humanity that happens in cycles. Control is like greed, it thickens and deepens. Hobbits become Golum. I would like to take the above article and read it out loud at the PTA meeting or the school board meeting without a mask. What's at stake for me? Loss of friends, my business erodes, the "mean girls" brigade will surely attack me for being uneducated and for being discriminatory against the weaker more vulnerable kids . . . and so I waffle.
But what will get me to do it? My son, who has only seen a masked elementary school. Who sits six feet apart from other kids at his desk at lunch in the cafeteria, who has the biggest smile in the world and is never seen wearing it inside a school. Who loves to sing, but isn't allowed. Who makes the other girls feel comfortable and charmed and secure. Who finds the skinny avenues for connection in school. He is learning this at age, 5, 6 and 7.... this is not America. This sounds like I'm describing China. Let's be honest here. And I must have the courage to speak up! Because kids are not dying from Covid. So wish me luck in my Massachusetts town that is revisiting Salem.
This is just a sad story and we need more of these stories to finally break through to the masses that this behavior is NOT NORMAL and should never be normalized. My college girl -- who transferred from University of Arizona to Grand Canyon University this semester because of the mask mandate -- told me that her friends at U of A are now fighting a new school rule -- that no one can wear cloth masks, they have to be surgical masks. NEITHER stops the spread of viruses, but that doesn't matter. They are trying to force everyone to conform. And what people don't see in some of the deep blue states is that there are many places around the country that have lived fairly normal for the last year, year and a half -- no masks, no mandates, kids in school, no mandatory testing. If you're sick, stay home. No quarantines because you may have been exposed to someone who may have had COVID. The asymptomatic spread BS coupled with masks led to this fear of everyone, fear of a virus of which 99.5% of people under 70 survive --- and 99.998% of kids survive.
That was a smart move by your daughter... I just keep wondering if we should move or if we need to stand up and fight. I mean my entire extended family lives here so I think its time to fight.
I think people need to stand up and speak the truth. Eventually the truth will be heard. We left California for Arizona before COVID, but if we were still there, we'd probably leave. The mentality is so different with my friends and family still there. Most people in AZ don't wear masks, and other than government buildings no one told me to leave if I didn't have a mask on, and I avoided places that I knew would be mini-dictators about them. At my church on Christmas -- totally packed Catholic church, standing room only, overflow room, etc -- only about 5-7% of people had masks on.
Exactly! Thank you for sharing...
This brought tears to my eyes (and I don't tear up easily)!
Ditto.
She should take a gap year off. Come back later. Why pay for this nonsense.
Why go at all. College may be a relic of the past when information was centralized
My son graduated from GU Law last year and he was fortunate to have the first half+ of his experience in person. The remainder of second year and all of third year was a remote experience, living with us, with whom he fortunately has a very good relationship. The school had the audacity to raise the tuition 5%, and then given a 2% "remote discount".
Chutzpah. 3% for a worse experience.
I suggest a well-publicized campaign to try to actively encourage prospective and admitted students to choose another university.
Fight every way you can. I refuse to mask unless forced to. There is no solid evidence masks(except N95, which is a torture device) work
I'm in Arizona and can count on one hand the times I wore a mask and only when forced to. I received many dirty looks in grocery stores but most of the clerks wish they didn't have to wear them. Now only about 20% of people wear them (and 10% in my church) and no dirty looks.
My daughter is at GU, too. I told her over Christmas break that if she transfers we would be thrilled. Let me know if you'd like my email address.
Oh, and this telegram group consists of like-minded parents of college students: https://t.me/+03TE_DjGyiYwOTI5
Science has gone the way of common sense…
Imagine a healthcare system in which these same people are in-charge of all medical care that you and your loved ones can receive. Imagine THEY have to authorize your treatments - AND you are required to take whatever treatment they mandate. Do you really want healthcare under THEIR direction?
That’s the system they want. They have all the answers…your job is simply not to ask any questions - just say, baah…
I expect some lunatic will file charges against Dr. Makary for this article with the Maryland licensing board trying to get his medical license pulled. Think that that’s crazy? It’s happening across America to any doctor who is viewed as promoting “vaccine hesitancy”. They’re being investigated with the intent to terminate their license.
And just remember — this ain’t going to stop — you’re next!
I am almost more worried about the level of compliance happening in these situations. The rules themselves are awful, but it seems like the students are bound to them and willing to turn on one another. Makes me feel physically ill.
Students at Ivy schools have spent their entire lives preparing to be members of the elite. Most have literally been groomed from childhood. So 1) they're not going to jeopardize their shot at elite power, and 2) acknowledging elite incompetence would force them to question the value of their "education" to join this same cadre of people.
I suppose they may also realize that a society conditioned to meekly follow whatever the today's powerful demand is useful for their future ambitions.
Yes, the kids you speak of know exactly what’s at stake.
you make it sound like 1950's east germany . no one to blame but ourselves , unfortunately with freedom comes complacency
I spent considerable time in East Germany in the 1960s. The major difference I see is that the East Germans KNEW their government and government media spewed propaganda and often lied to them. Many Americans still believe the legacy media and trust the public health bureaucracy.
Yes, too many Americans do not yet know that the corporate media empire is a propaganda machine. They are so brainwashed that they can’t see it, or won’t invest the time to find the truth.
My neighbor, who is literally named Karen, is anything but complacent right now. She's been activated! You will follow the rules or she is on it like white on rice...like she was born for this.
Just tell her to fuck off...
I would, but she feeds my fish when I'm out of town. ;)
They make machines for that.
It's a joke..you know like, I would stand up to the nonsense but there is even the slightest benefit for me in not doing so.
Yes. Fight back. Hard
Some people were born to be nazi prison guards.
As a fan of brown rice, I’m offended by your comment 🤪🤪.
It’s sad that Karen has been brainwashed, you should stay away from her.
I'm a Georgetown Alum and I'm embarrassed for Georgetown. Groupthink dominates a university that once prided itself on open inquiry. I stopped giving in 2020 when they suspended school, and I told them why. It's obscene to deprive students of an in-person education when they're paying enormous tuition, and furthermore when Covid bares negligible risk to 99.99% of them, and those who have high risk can choose to stay away. Sadly, my classmates who have gone into medicine are for the most part obsessed with Covid fear. And when you cite things like infection fatality rates and hospitalization rates by age, they get philosophical, as if our public policy decisions are cost-free. Most of them will continue to get paid whether we lock schools down or not, or whether we allow people to continue operating their small businesses, bars, restaurants, etc. Likewise, they support vaccine passports, which are equally pointless as well as a scary precedent.
Mostly I am frustrated that all we have done is drag out the inevitable at extreme economic and psychological cost, in addition to the increases in suicides, overdoses, and other preventable deaths. We have not counted these deaths and we probably never will, because we thrived on the illusion of control. When Covid was discovered in blood samples in Washington from September 2019 (IIRC), everyone should have said "game over." There was no chance of containing this virus when there was no realistic vaccination strategy for places like poor areas of Africa and Asia. where the disease would proliferate, mutate, and eventually exploit the narrow targeting of mRNA vaccines. And sure enough, a prediction you could have made 2 years ago has come true. We have Omicron, a gift to herd immunity. Let's give it a hug.
Late to the party, but this is the single best comment I have read on this subject to date. Every bit of it is spot on.
Absolutely spot on
"She told me she is thinking about “transferring to an SEC school just to have an in-person experience.” As a real estate agent in Atlanta, my database is 90% leads from New York, New Jersey and California.
Just don’t let them vote Democratic when they move to your state.
I also live in Atlanta and I've seen a surge of New York license plates the past 2 years. I'm not sure people are self-aware enough to abandon their past beliefs and vote differently.
Trust me, they don’t
They vote for the EXACT SAME policies that caused them to leave their prior State.
Peoples’ exhibit #1: Northern Virginia - changed the Commonwealth dramatically.
Same thing will happen to Texas and Florida.
They vote “left” because that’s what they do…
Liberalism is a mental disorder…
Maybe not, though. NoVA experienced a blue wave due to the enormous growth of the federal government in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. So, the people headed there would naturally be friendly to "big government politics". The case of folks fleeing CA and NY is a bit different from that, so there is some hope!
Hope you’re right…
My sense is leopards don’t change their strips….
Sadly
Just because someone moved from a blue state doesn't mean they vote "blue." Plenty of people leaving blue states in the past couple of years are doing it to get away from high-tax, woke-policy states. Case in point: Florida which has been an historically Democratic state (yes that is true) just crossed a threshold in 2021 with more voters registered as Republicans than Democrats breaking a decades-old Democrat party advantage in Florida.
Spreading like, and because of, the virus!!
That is actually my greatest concern. I would hope that if they had to pack up and LEAVE these states there may be some self-reflection. The other way to look at it is they were the people who are least tolerant of this kind of leftist nonsense, so they were the ones most motivated to get out. The die-hard leftists are the ones who never link their votes over the past 20 years with the reality on the ground. They will never change.
From my own personal experience (CA to FL), my CA friends who are Democrats of a kind (or I don't know how to explain it, let's just say the ones who voted against the recall) asked me how in the hell I would move to Florida with its god-awful governor. My friends who are less hooked into the Blue No Matter Who narrative, were jealous. From my vantage point, "Blues" see FL and TX as pariah states and would never leave their blue cocoon. Those who are fed up with the blue narrative are the ones leaving.
Correct. It's BlueAnon: the curious ability to look at NY compared to FL and convince yourself that FL is the one doing it wrong. No lockdowns, lower case rates and lower death rates, a thriving economy... man those Floridians are INSANE!!! :-)
It's arguable. I crunched the numbers today and during the delta wave, Florida went commando while California locked down. Result was in Florida, cases peaked at 1250 per million per day, four times higher than California. Then after the peak, the plateau was two times higher in California because you don't stop it completely and it trickles on. But Florida got to be worry-free for those three months. Total for the end of 2021 was about 2x the cases and deaths in Florida, but much happier people overall.
If you look at the success versus failure within liberal democracies that are not islands, you were basically able to save maximum 0.1% of the population by extreme methods and shutdown practices.
2 years of pandemic is about 3% of overall life expectancy. So the utlitarian calculation is: did we help people overall? Even assuming that life only was 10% worse for everyone during the pandemic, that would mean a negative of -0.3% negative life effect (could be converted to QALY for people familiar), triple the negative impact versus the 0.1% of lives you saved (who also weren't going to live very long on top of that).
The suggestion is definitely that shutdowns were not so great in 20/20 hindsight, versus plowing ahead using basic precautions. But it's arguable. I wish everyone would admit no one knows exactly what's best. It's like blaming your friend for imperfect evasion decisions instead of the tsunami hitting both of you.
Color me crazy (not blue or red) and free. : )
This supports the notion that the loons stay in their blue states where they belong. This is good news.
I hope you're right.
That is worrisome
My wife and I have seen most of our close friends leave the people's republic of California for Wyoming, Texas, Nevada, Arizona and other states. I can guarantee you none of them will bring traditional "California" politics with them. They were all fed up with the state's lunacy and the sort of groupthink that Dr. Makary mentions.
Peoples Republic of California, hilarious 😂.
P.S. better football in the SEC, so I get it.
What schools are in the SEC? The South Eastern Conference includes universities across the South and Mid-South in the 11 states that span from South Carolina west to Texas.
UGA, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, UK, U South Carolina, U Missouri, U Tennessee and more.
Ole Miss & Mississippi State....https://www.thoughtco.com/universities-in-southeastern-conference-787012
I have been an employee of one of the above mentioned universities for over 20 years. Last summer our lab was tasked with developing and implementing the COVID testing technology (it's really not that different from what we normally do and we had a lot of the equipment and know-how already). After reading this I am completely undone. I had no idea what was being done to students who tested positive. I go through the data weekly and I can assure you that MANY of the positives have extremely high CT values (so high that they are not good enough to send to public testing authorities), but I highly doubt anyone knows what their CT values are for their positive test. We even fairly recently were asked to discover if we could tell if someone had actually swabbed (students trying to prove they were negative - good for you) by testing for human genes (BTW, we can).
The end of December we were given the booster mandate (January 21) which happens to be 2 days after I am even eligible to get a booster as I delayed getting vaccinated as long as possible - I have had the virus. I wasn't planning on getting the booster - don't know how keen they are on approving medical/religious exemptions, but now I don't think I even want to work there anymore. The information in your story is heartbreaking to me. I feel duped and complicit.
Anyone at a fine Jesuit institution should know what this means: And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.
I am too in the same boat as you. Had covid, vaccinated and now my public employer is requiring me to get boosted. I will not comply. If we hand over our bodily autonomy we will never recover it.
I am so sorry - it’s such a difficult situation to face. I’ve dedicated 25 years of my life to the field of histocompatability and immunogenetics. I am a very valuable employee and I pose very little risk to anyone. I am hopeful the Supreme Court can intervene. Otherwise I won’t be employed much longer if an exemption isn’t issued for me. I love my job and my co-workers. It’s truly heartbreaking. Best wishes Sofia in your fight.
Thank you Clarisse. Hoping for the same intervention in the Supreme Court. Good luck to you as well. ❤
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin…
Clever. They’re certainly doing all they can to accelerate it….
Trust me, the law school is in even worse shape…the blind leading the blind with ears plugged…
"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" ... Turns out these were Belshazzar's pronouns.
Haha - the woke Babylonian.
LOL
Nice reference
Was it Hillary who said never let a good crisis go to waste? That's what they are doing. Covid was the campaign in 2020. It has been a godsend for the left, who are using it to increase government control of life across the country, something they'd otherwise not be able to do. Republicans should be hammering them on this topic, opposing mandates of all kinds. And any moderate sane Democrats who exist.
And it's unconscionable what they've done to children during this pandemic. Anytime I see a child having to wear a mask my blood boils. I cannot stand it. I'm in my 30's and can't stand wearing a mask. A kid who is not at risk should be able to live life freely and enjoy it. These hysterics are in effect destroying life in order to save it. And of course they're not even doing that.
Thank you for writing this about kids. My son is a teenager on the autism spectrum. We were so looking forward to high school, where he is in a great program with kids like him who are bright but socially behind their peers. In the middle of his freshmen year in 2020, he is sent home. Now he is a junior, and has spent every semester except for one either at home or at school with a mask. It’s an absolute crime what we have done to children, yet no one will be held to account for it.
They absolutely should be; Republicans need to grow a spine, if they went after this issue hard imo they'd make major gains. The healthcare establishment has been so corrupted this pandemic, and it's kids who are feeling it the worst. It's insane that we can't recognize that this pandemic is a threat to older people and those with comorbidities primarily, we should be focused on protecting them, instead of needlessly focusing on kids. For no discernible reason, and with many obviously detrimental effects.
Elite Republicans and Democrats are pretty much lockstep on "The Science." (Among other thing$.) It's the Uni-party and their highly compensated flying monkeys vs. the people on this one.
Yes, but the moderates in the center have the majority.
We just need to harness it to return government to the people.
Every mechanism of this charade has been crafted to reduce people's motivation to do so. Right down to the incessant masking- reduces oxygen levels just enough to create a sub- clinical, sustained level of apathy and confusion. Only takes 5% or so. Then you are not the fully functioning person you were before the mask. You will only find mask cheerleading at the top of the Googles though.
"So why are we imposing a kind of martial law on students to ever so slightly reduce the chance that they develop a mild illness?"
Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds.
Two separate things:
1) this is nothing like Nazi Germany
2) these people absolutely would have been Nazis
They're grossly overpaid campus administrators with too much power. They're the ones with the speech codes, the pronouns, and so on, and why tuition has exploded in the last 30 years.
In Germany, in 1933 or 1934, they would have happily been "coordinated" and coopted, I'm sure.
Maybe. I don't think one can observe a person's irrationally authoritarian reaction to one situation and extrapolate that the person would react the same way in every situation. There are always a lot of different influences with different magnitudes acting on people.
Well you might think I’m talking about a larger group than what I’m saying. There’s the people who went along with it and the people who were aggressive.
I'm not saying your hypothesis is unreasonable, only that, in the absence of a lot more information that we can't possibly get, the evaluation remains "maybe."
Your desire to distinguish between “absolutely” and “maybe” is a direct attack on my over-the-top internet persona.
😂😂🥳🥳
Sorry. It's just my act.
Well you don’t want to trivialize it by comparing budget cuts to Nazism. At the same time you don’t want to wait, out of deference, until something equally bad happens before you say something.
How dare you. Debate me!!!
😂😂
This is a rational comparison :)
I think that is probably the best guess at the answer to why.
With the added twist that they must signal that they are in the tribe that is following The Science. Not the troglodyte anti-maskers.
Someone recently commented on one of these substack articles that their college age daughter wore a mask outside because "she didn't want people to think she's a republican."
That’s like me. I wear an N95 and a face shield with an NRA sticker on it to confuse people.
🤓🤓
Can I steal this idea and add a LGB sticker to the shield?
Sir...Bingo
At Harvard, the testing “cadence” for vaccinated dorm residents must be tested 3 times a week. They must follow eating rules:
“Practice ‘Consume & Cover’ — Consume your meal and immediately mask up when done. Use the ‘Quick Sip Rule’ — When drinking, lower your mask, take a sip, and then promptly cover your mouth and nose. If you’re taking your time between bites and sips, put your mask back on.”
How do we push back? Most students just follow the rules in a half-assed passive aggressive way. From what I hear from my son, the “activist” type students (who like to protest against putting criminals in jails) actually support these measures because they feel safer.
Almost as frightening as these unscientific, draconian, and cruel policies is the the students' "passive-aggressive" compliance. This does not bode well for the future of our country.
It's the reduced oxygen levels from the mask enforcement. I've seen what what even a 5-10% short term reduction in oxygen does to people first hand, before all of this started. They seem like themselves, but they are *not* themselves. They are much more malleable, persuadable and fearful.
Candis...merit...i have heard this topic, before the covid showed. Firemen go through this training.
People still doing their "research" from the top of the Googles will vehemently disagree with us though.
Wow, this is crazy.
But I guess kids that go to Harvard are being groomed to be the next elite in our country. So, yeh - practice until you make it to the top and can shout from the roof tops: do as I say, not as I do.
I work for a university... these policies have nothing at all to do with protecting students, they are driven by professors and instructors. Their unions (yes, professors have unions for collective bargaining!) continue to push for these insane policies, while administration continues to instruct classroom teachers to "provide academic accommodations" to support student mental health. It feels like satire.
Absolutely. I am university faculty too. Many of my colleagues remain terrified. It seems from my vantage point it's about the unreasonable demands of panic- driven educutors, at university as well as k12. We are pandering to these people. It has to stop.
MLinus...It is easy, when we overpay these people running the Universities, they get spoiled and then they show "the true me" while playing chess, they push their subjects.
How do we Cut their pay, coaches included? Wont happen, but nice, give the student affordability...thanks.
Dr. Makary has been a voice of reason through this whole drama. Meanwhile, college administrators at wealthy, elite colleges have not been voices of reason. And the kids have been scarily compliant through all of it. What happened? Where are the angry protests? Where are the signs and open rebellion? Oh yeah, progressive dogma runs rampant through these universities, which encourages this exact compliance and behavior.
It's really hard to believe this is really happening, and that people are going along with it. Where is this heading? What will we be facing in 10 years, if people don't stand up against all of this nonsense?
Reduced oxygen due to masking produces a level of confusion and apathy that is very beneficial to our political elites and overseers. People become much more malleable and they are completely unaware that they have muzzled their higher level thinking and there is only so much of it left to navigate what is put in front of them. Believe it because it's true. The masks are the icing on this cake.
My college daughter and many of her friends know all this is complete unmitigated bullshit, but there is immense social pressure to conform. She has been shouldered out of in-person sorority meetings because she doesn’t want to wear a mask, and elected to not perform with her marching band at a recent bowl game because even though she has no risk factors at all and has had covid and is also vaccinated, they were demanding she get boosted and consent to wear a mask at all times (including in her hotel room except while in the restroom). She drew the line and said no, and drew firm criticism from her brain dead “friends” but also private messages of support. No one would stand up for her up publicly however.
Gives a whole new level of evil to mean girls.
The seemingly intentional obfuscation from university administrations about the radically different risk profiles of their students says everything you need to know about the motives of our technocratic elites and how fragile and delicately constituted these people are - so scared of dying that they're afraid to actually live, a mentality made possible after having spent their entire lives coddled and indentured to creature comforts, bubbled from risk and real adversity.
Ordering double-vaxed-and-boosted students to submit to this kind of college lifestyle is borderline sociopathic, and this covid bureaucracy they've constructed under the guise of benevolence will not go away even in the event that a cure is discovered - they'll claim some asinine justification for keeping this vague coercive public health apparatus around for good.
The Academic bubble they live in is protected by a very deep and a very wide mote. It has protected them for a very long time and will continue to protect them for the foreseeable future. It is, in my opinion, one of the pillars of capitalism that needs to be disrupted in a very painful way. My only hope is that some very smart people see the opportunity and seize the day.
How heart-breaking and insane is this sentence: "I spoke to several students who were holed up. One of them told me she would sometimes call a friend to come and wave at her through the window, just to see a human face."
These insane, ridiculous policies make me want to scream from the rooftops. If my local school district tries to go remote again, I'll be the first one out there protesting. Stupid shit like this is always about the money. My question is who is benefiting from these policies.
Big pharma. And what’s insane is the left used to condemn big pharma. Now they are gods to them.
“People walk around the library and yell at you if you drink a sip of water”
—————————————
I see Dr. Makary has resorted to plagiarizing Dante’s Inferno.
My S is a freshmen at Penn. They were all required to have double vaccination to attend in the Fall. They had mandatory Covid testing every 2 weeks (you couldn't get in to classrooms/dorm if you didn't go submit to your test) and they were required to wear masks in all indoor settings. Despite this, he had a wonderful fall semester full of fun and social activities. The last couple of weeks before school let out in December, the positive tests started happening. His close friend tested positive (she had no symptoms) and was put in isolation for 10 days. She couldn't leave and all meals were brought to her. She never developed a single symptom. Truly, as a parent, this disgusted me and seemed like some psych-op experiment (e.g. how much will they tolerate before complaining/melting down)? There were kids who tested positive the day before going home and, as a result, spent Christmas in isolation in the Covid dorm. 10 days. Rarely a symptom. What are we doing and why, as parents, are we allowing this to continue? When my daughter left school, I believe the Penn Covid Statistics said there were 148 positive cases, all students and it represented 1.27% positivity. No hospitalizations. What are we doing?
I thank Dr. Makary for being one of the few who have spoken up during this time. Where are the doctors at the "prestigious" UPenn Medical School and Hospital? Why aren't they also saying "enough is enough?" These are young adults who have already sacrificed so much in the name of "the virus." At this point, we have significant data proving it is not harmful to this group of people. Please, listen to this physician and make better decisions so that the next generation doesn't hate us all for what we did to them? Those of us lucky enough to have attended college remember the fun that can happen. The experimentation, the socialization and the FREEDOM that we felt. I wish that I could bring the 80's to my son. It would blow his mind.
The doctors at "prestigious" medical schools are part of the elite. They have far too much to lose to buck the consensus.