Former Contributor to the Huffington Post
Vicki Cobb's Blog
  • Vicki Cobb's Blog
  • About
  • Contact

"The Science Should Not Stand in the Way"

17/7/2020

 
Picture
Cook Children's Health Care System, Fort Worth TX
At yesterday's White House press conference, Kayleigh McEnany said that "The science should not stand in the way.." when it comes to opening all schools all over the country, as fully as if Covid had never happened. That is Trump's policy because "children and parents are dying from that trauma, too." [Staying home from school.]  This lack of comprehension about science in the Trump administration is dangerous.  Did  "the science get in the way" when we put men on the moon?

I am also distressed over the order to send all data about Covid to Alex Azar's Department of Health and Human Services instead of the CDC, the agency designed to read such data.  We are being set up to receive fudged data, if we see any data at all.  I hope there is a work-around so the public can be fully informed of  the dreadful numbers of Covid infections, hospitalizations and deaths that are the outcome of the laissez-faire attitudes of Trump followers who have thoughtlessly swallowed his Kool Aid.

What is the value of education if not to enable people to understand the value of science? If you listen carefully to Dr. Fauci, you see he chooses his words carefully.  He tells us that we are still in the process of learning about this novel coronavirus.  And until we understand it well enough to create a safe and effective vaccine we must practice age-old behaviors to protect ourselves and society from the spread of this disease.   I live in New York where we had the leadership of Governor Andrew Cuomo.  Here's our current chart of daily and projected corona virus deaths in NYS. 
Picture
Every day, during the worst of the pandemic here, Andrew Cuomo gave a PowerPoint news conference explaining the numbers, and emphasizing the values for New York; that we were tough, strong, and loving.  Maybe that sounds cheesy but my friends in NYC and my family in western NY are immensely proud of our state.  We were blindsided by the infection landing in our international airports, Kennedy and Newark.  
​

​We really sacrificed in lock-down and are timorous about abusing the easing up of restrictions because we don't want to lose what we have gained.  Cuomo says that we can open up our schools with some restrictions if we keep Covid at bay.  All the answers for our state and cities are on that web site.

If we deny the numbers and the science, science tells us that the numbers of infections, hospitalizations and deaths will rise.  Exponentially.  Wait and see.
Myra Zarnowski
17/7/2020 11:57:37 am

Thank you for such a clear discussion. I am shocked by the statement
“The science should not stand in the way.”

Alfred Marrin’s book about the 1918 pandemic ends with this sobering thought: “When the next pandemic comes, as it surely will, perhaps we will be ready to meet it. If we are not, the outcome will be very, very, very dreadful.”

Science needs to inform us.

Andrea Warren link
17/7/2020 12:50:19 pm

And our leaders must inform us. Cuomo set the bar. Anything less is unacceptable. Thanks for an excellent and thoughtful piece.

Jan Adkins link
18/7/2020 12:32:43 pm

Vicki and her work are among the most effective gates to real science for young people. It's no surprise that she should call Trump Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnenay on her inexcusable attempt to separate science and politics.

Politics is not separable from breathing or eating. The state and its people are one, and no members of our political state are more valuable and essential to us than children. Prying reality away from our lives can only open a crack in logic, an imposed psychosis, a void in understanding life.

Opening such an unhealthy, dangerous crack for partisan advantage is cynical, disingenuous, but mostly insulting. Ms. McEnenay assumes her government position supersedes sense and dismisses credulity. She assumes that we won't notice her mindless lapse of stark reality. Ms. McEnenay is eager for our parents to ignore the risk our children face so President Trump's economy numbers give him an election advantage. Perhaps some parents will ignore the lives of their children to raise the Dow-Jones a few points, and the White House press office will be in some part responsible for the inevitable results.

Speaking plainly, sending our children back to full-time, brick-and-mortar schools without a reliable vaccine is homicidal. Overstatement? The stakes are children's lives, and Covid 19 is a formidable sickness.

I trust Vicki to sound the alarm when science is questioned.


Comments are closed.

     Vicki Cobb

    *Award-winning author of more than 90 nonfiction books for children, mostly in science.
    *Former Contributor to the Huffington Post
    *Founder/President of iNK Think Tank, Inc.
    *Passionate advocate for the joy of learning for every child and teacher.


    Disclaimer: All opinions, typos, and grammatical errors are my own,  especially small word omissions which I often don't notice in my fervor.  

    RSS Feed

    ​​​​Archives

    March 2022
    November 2021
    August 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018

    ​Categories

    All
    Abuse
    Achievement Gap
    Adkins Jan
    Albee Sarah
    Anti Bullying
    Anti-bullying
    Art
    Author Driven Nonfiction
    Author-driven Nonfiction
    Authors On Call
    Biology
    Birds
    Black History
    BLC2018
    Book Review
    Child Abuse
    Children As Political Pawns
    Children's Nonfiction
    Citizenship
    Civics
    Civil Rights
    Class ACTS
    Climate Change
    Clinton Chelsea
    Collard III Sneed B.
    Common Core State Standards
    Conversation
    Coronavirus
    Costaldo Nancy F.
    Covid-19
    Critical Thinking
    Data-driven
    Definition
    Democracy
    Dewey John
    Dogs
    Dunphy Madeleine
    Ecology
    Education
    Educational Standards
    Electron Microscope
    Empowerment For Children
    Endangered Species
    Excellence
    Extinction
    Fact-checking
    Fleming Candace
    "flow"
    Galileo
    Girls' Education
    Global Warming
    Greenberg Jan
    Grit
    Gun Violence
    History
    History Of "school Reform"
    Home Libraries
    Hurricanes
    INK Database
    INK Database Of Books
    Insects
    Interactive Video Conferencing
    Isaac Sally
    Jeopardy Winner
    Learning
    Lesser Carolyn
    Leveled Reading
    Levinson Cynthia
    Lexiles
    Listening
    Literacy
    Literature
    Liu Eric
    March For Our Lives
    McClafferty Carla
    Mentor Texts
    Montgomery Heather L.
    Montgomery Sy
    Motivated Reasoning
    Motivation
    Munro Roxie
    Nathan Amy
    Nonfiction
    Nonfiction Minute
    Nonprofit And Education
    Opening Schools
    Patent Dorothy Hinshaw
    Pedagogy
    Picture Books
    Podcasts
    Primary Source
    Pringle Laurence
    Pundits Of The Pandemic
    Rap Music
    Reading
    Rules
    Rusch Elizabeth
    School Choice
    SchoolTube
    School Visits
    Science Experiments You Can Eat
    Science Teaching
    Semple Heidi E.Y.
    Social Skills
    Socrates
    Speaking
    Spring Fling
    Standardized Testing
    STEM
    Studies On Education
    Swanson Jennifer
    Teaching
    Technology And Children
    Thomas Peggy
    Trump
    Truth
    Voting
    Warren Andrea
    Washington George
    Weatherford Carole Boston
    Webinars
    Work With Us
    World War II
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Links

The Nonfiction Minute
​

​iNK Think Tank website

​Vicki Cobb's Kids' Fun Page

We Dare You Videos


Company

iNK Think Tank, Inc. is a nonprofit with the mission of using nonfiction children's literature in classrooms

Contact

vicki@inkthinktank.org
​

© 2019


© COPYRIGHT 2019. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.