For most of the year, North Carolina was one of the few states south of the Ohio River that hadn’t completely lost its mind with coronavirus. Indeed, for a long time, we had fewer cases than any other state with 10 or more congressmen. This was because our governor, Roy Cooper, has listened to the science and the data from the beginning. He has taken a “dimmer switch” approach to reopening the state, instituting a phased approach to rolling back restrictions.
However, things have taken a turn for the worse here in recent weeks. In November, the state rolled out a county alert system to help local officials, business leaders and individuals make decisions on how to respond to the virus. The latest update shows the majority of the state as either “orange” for significant community spread or “red” for critical community spread. A whopping 48 counties out of 100 total are in the red. See for yourself:
That includes nearly every county in the Charlotte metro area—except Mecklenburg County, home to Charlotte itself, which ticked up from yellow to orange. Combined with reports that hospitals could run out of beds in six weeks, Cooper implemented a statewide curfew from 10 pm to 5 am, effective on Friday. It will last until January 8 and is clearly aimed at curbing large gatherings for Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s. It’s also aimed at bars and nightclubs. Cooper has warned that more restrictions could be coming if the case count doesn’t go down soon.
One of the counties now in the red is Union County, to Charlotte’s southeast. It includes such suburbs as Monroe, Indian Trail, Waxhaw, Wingate and Stallings. And yet, a friend of mine there who goes to my church in Charlotte and is a teacher at Union County Public Schools tells me that school officials are still not willing to even consider ending in-person instruction and going remote-only.
This despite a countywide positivity rate of 12.8 percent and still rising. And this despite nearly every other county in the metro—including Charlotte-Mecklenburg—going to remote only. A number of suburban counties have gone to remote learning with far lower positivity rates than Union.
My friend is especially worried because her husband and her son have breathing issues that would put them at substantial risk of breaking bad—VERY bad—in the event they catch this virus. As well, she was only able to see her grandmother through the window of her nursing home for the better part of the year. Nursing-home visits were all but banned in March, and those restrictions were only beginning to be rolled back before her grandma died last month.
This cannot stand, folks. The obstinacy of the Union County School Board is literally going to get people killed. It’s time to pester them. And this isn’t just a local or statewide thing either. This kind of obstinacy flies in the face of some pretty robust scientific data.
Here are the members of the Union County School Board:
Also reach out to superintendent of schools Dr. Andrew Houlihan, either via email or on Twitter @AGHoulihan.
Someone else who may want to see this sobering data is Union County Health Department communicable disease expert Ashley Burts, who can be reached at Ashley.burts at unioncountync dot gov.
The signal must go out—days can be made up. Lives cannot. And it cannot be repeated enough—this school board’s refusal to listen to the science is going to get kids, teachers and others killed.