Today The Atlantic Let Me Down. Here’s the letter I felt I had to write them.
I find it odd that The Atlantic recently published a piece by Emily Oster stating that schools aren’t in fact the disease vector concerns we feared a mere day after ProPublica publishes a piece calling out 44 outbreaks in Illinois schools. The Atlantic’s piece raises suspicion with me as it closes by calling out “Democratic governors who love to flaunt their pro-science bona fides in comparison with the anti-science Trump administration don’t seem to be aware of this growing body of evidence.” They didn’t need to put a political spin on this subject but they did. Such immediately makes me question motive behind the writing while also makes me skeptical of the piece. I gain further concern with “On social media, people shared pictures of high schools with crowded hallways and no masking as if to say I told you so... those photos of hallways don’t count” yet we’re provided with no explanation as to why such photos shouldn’t count. Concerns seem justified when considering “If school isn’t safe for everyone, why is it safe for low-income students? And if school is safe for low-income students, why isn’t it safe for everyone?” Such tries to paint protection from disease as falsely in competition with addressing racism, economic inequality, and systemic injustices. We know this to be false because as Dr. Aaron Carroll explained in the NYTimes, risks are cumulative while “we aren’t very good at discussing trade-offs. We want it all. We want to eat in restaurants, crowd into houses, go to work and celebrate occasions en masse.” This is to say that low-income students are safer at learning centers because the other students aren’t there. Here’s Dr. Carroll MD again, “Too many view protective measures as all or nothing: Either we do everything, or we might as well do none. That’s wrong. Instead, we need to see that all our behavior adds up.” And, “Instead of asking why we can’t do certain activities, we might consider what we’re willing to give up to do them more safely. Even better, we might even consider what we’re willing to give up so others can do them, too.” Consider the ProPublica piece shows an average of 180 new cases per day in children in Illinois after schools opened though they averaged less than half with 72 per day before schools opened. Packing the schools with kids is like allowing the forest to fill with dried wood. There’s no guarantee it will burn, but when it burns, it really burns. You yourselves recently published a piece by Zeynep Tufekci highlighting that K not just R varies; it seems in her advice Dr. Oster (not an MD) has ignored this.
Sincerely,
[Fffflats]
This letter writer is a former Naval Aviator and Test Pilot; in other words, he knows a thing or two about risk management.