Unraveling China's COVID Origins Deception

• FBI director confirms lab leak responsible for spreading deadly Coronavirus
• China has rebuffed an open and honest probe of the origins of the virus
• Inspector General report exposes NIH lax oversight of Wuhan lab research 
• Dr. Anthony Fauci owes a full explanation for grants to Wuhan facility

The pandemic ushered in unprecedented censorship of opinions about Coronavirus origins. No one was allowed to question the official government version that the deadly virus spread from animals to humans. Now there are growing questions about the hypothesis and its leading advocate Dr. Anthony Fauci.

It is about time for a thorough investigation after the virus ravaged the globe, killing 6.87 million people, including 1.1 million Americans.

Conventional wisdom about the virus recently was upended by The Wall Street Journal, citing a classified report by the Energy Department. The document expressed the viewpoint that the virus likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.   

Defensive administration officials were quick to point out the Energy Department's assessment was made with "low confidence." National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan rushed to the microphones to assure there is "no definitive answer" that the pandemic can be traced to a lab leak in China.

Then FBI Director Christopher Wray dropped a bombshell that detonated the administration's attempt to preserve the natural origin thesis.  "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," the director said in a television interview. 

For three years, Dr. Fauci and the World Health Organization (WHO) have collaborated to advance the theory that the virus spread to humans from animals, likely bats, at a market in Wuhan.  China promoted this version while stiff arming an independent, scientific investigation into the origin.

WHO officials were bullied by China into accepting the Communist theory. There was a hurried probe by an international group of experts, working alongside Chinese health officials.  The controversial study published in 2021 became the official thesis under pining the Chinese version.

In June of last year the WHO recommended further investigation into the possibility of a lab leak, marking a seismic shift from its earlier stance.  Under withering criticism, the world organization admitted the original finding had been "premature," asserting it could not rule out the lab leak version. 

China slammed the world organization and withdrew its collaboration with the group. In his interview, Wray took note of China's lack of cooperation and observed the Chinese government "has been doing its best to try to thwart, and obfuscate" a legitimate investigation into the role of the Wuhan lab. 

A State Department fact-sheet on its website minces no words on in assessing the Chinese government's role in a coverup:

"...The Chinese Communist Party has systematically prevented a transparent and thorough investigation of the COVID-19 pandemic's origin, choosing instead to devote enormous resources to deceit and disinformation."

The State Department verified it had reason to believe that several researchers inside the Wuhan lab became sick with COVID in the autumn of 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak.  This raises questions about Wuhan officials public claims there were "zero infections" among its staff.

Despite mounting evidence of a lab leak, Dr. Fauci claims there is no data to support such a thesis. He knows global health authorities have been prevented from interviewing Wuhan researchers. He also fails to mention there is no credible, independent data to support the animal to human theory either. 

Early in the pandemic a Senate Committee disclosed internal emails showing Dr. Fauci was informed by senior scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that a natural origin was "highly unlikely." Dr. Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the NIH. 

Perhaps, Dr. Fauci was protecting his reputation. As NIAID director, Dr. Fauci administered  grants totaling $2.57 million to the EcoHealth Alliance, a New York based nonprofit research group.  An estimated $1.8 million wound up funding research at the Wuhan research facility.  

What is indisputable is that the Wuhan lab engaged in "gain of function" research designed to replicate a virus to increase its virulence and transmissibility to humans.  Dr. Fauci has vociferously denied that American taxpayer dollars were used for "gain of function" experiments. 

Dr. Peter Daszak, a British zoologist who runs EcoHealth, has emerged as a central figure in the "gain of function" controversy.  He has been a target of recent Congressional inquiries for his role in overseeing the funding of the Wuhan lab, while tacitly supporting the research at the government facility.  

The office of Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security audited the grants made by NIH to EcoHealth and issued a scathing 64-page report on January 25.  The document excoriates confusing protocols, misspent funds and monitoring of the potentially risky pathogens studied. 

The inspector general's audit found that the NIH "did not refer the research to HHS (Health & Human Services) for an outside review for enhanced potential pandemic pathogens" after a grant to the Wuhan lab.  Here are three key sentences from the OIG report:

"We found that NIH was only able to conclude that research resulted in virus growth that met specified benchmarks based on a late progress report from EcoHealth that NIH failed to follow up on until nearly two years after the due date.

"Based on these finding, we conclude that the NIH missed opportunities to more effectively monitor research.  With improved oversight, NIH may have been able to take more timely corrective actions to mitigate the inherent risks associated with this type of research.

"WIV's lack of cooperation following the COVID 19 outbreak limited EcoHealth's ability to monitor" how the funds were used by the Chinese facility.

In plain language: The NIH failed to supervise the administration of taxpayer money given to EcoHealth for pathogen research at the Wuhan lab.  That may explain why Dr. Fauci has stubbornly clung to the thesis that the global plague was transmitted naturally from animals to humans. 

Past censorship allowed China to escape culpability. Now there is a moral and scientific imperative for Congress and public health authorities to determine the full extent of China's complicity in covering up the origins of one of the deadliest pandemics in modern history.

Nearly Guaranteed Top 12 Predictions For 2023

No one is shedding a tear over the end of 2022.  Sharp inflation. Record food price hikes. Highest ever gasoline prices. Worrisome product shortages. Rising interest rates. Steep stock market losses. A porous border. Runaway federal government spending.  War in the Ukraine.  Good riddance to 2022. 

No even Nostradamus could have predicted the gloom of 2022.

When the calendar flipped to 2023, forecasters with short memories are peddling cheery news about everything from the stock market to inflation.  Optimists claim the new year will make Americans forget 2022.  Not so fast.  My occasionally reliable, highly unpredictable crystal ball is blinking red.

1. The country sinks into a recession, as predicted by a majority of economists and large banks.  The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be negative for at least two straight quarters this year.  The Biden Administration will avoid using the "r" word, referring to the crisis as a "temporary retraction." 

2. The economy will shed 1.1 million jobs as more major companies in the technology sector and big firms are forced to layoff employees in the face of less consumer spending.  First time unemployment claims increase each month.  Expect the unemployment rate to climb to 4.5% by year's end.

3.  Adding to the economic woes consumer credit card debt and personal loan delinquencies surge in the new year.  Consumers have been on a spending binge the last two years seemingly immune to inflationary prices.  A consumer retrenchment will negatively impact corporate earnings. 

4.  After the worse market since 2008, equities managers are clinging to history that shows markets tend not to experience two negative years in a row.  Equities bounce around early on before gaining momentum. Stocks finish the year strong with the S&P (+20%) outperforming the NASDQ and Dow. 

5. Home sales will reach their lowest point since the 1980's as interest rates make real estate less affordable, especially for first-time buyers. The good news is that the overheated increases in prices will abate except in a few markets where demand for high-end homes flourishes such as Texas and Florida.

6. The Federal Reserve, as promised by Jerome Powell, will continue to raises rates in the new year as inflation persistently refuses to fall lower than 5.8%. Food and energy prices leap higher than the CPI. Eventually, Fed hikes dampen growth, prompting Powell to forego a rate hike in fourth quarter.

7.  COVID infection rates soar past 70% in China after the Communist nation abandons its COVID Zero policy. New highly infectious variants develop as the virus rages, killing 1 million Chinese.  Chinese travelers spread the virus globally, leading to worldwide outbreaks.  

8. The Supreme Courts ends its temporarily halt of Title 42, which allows the expulsion of illegal immigrants under pandemic-era restrictions. The move unleashes a torrent of border crossings, prompting the forced resignation of Alejandro Mayorkas.

9. More fast food restaurants will join the robot revolution as testing by Chipotle, White Castle and others proves diners are satisfied with food prepared by robots.  The fast food industry will move quicker to adopt robots and AI as wage increases and the difficulty hiring workers persist.   

10.  The collapse of FTX Exchange, once a $32 billion enterprise, prods the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue regulations for the cryptocurrency industry.  As more crypto exchanges and lenders file for bankruptcy, the new rules clamp down on the industry, softening currency demand.    

11.  The Chinese will not launch an invasion of Taiwan instead increasing menacing militaristic tactics to cower the island.  When the U.S. fails to intervene, China finds an excuse to encircle the island with a naval armada.  China threatens a blockade unless Taiwan makes concessions.  

12. Trying to speculate on Putin's strategy in Ukraine is a fool's pursuit.  But the most likely scenario is the European Union will push for a settlement as energy supplies dwindle, sapping economic growth. Ukraine is pressured into a diplomatic solution when EU/US commit billions to rebuild the country.   

Print this column and wave in your prognosticator's face at the end of 2023.  However, if you have your own predictions you would like to share, I would like to read them.  After all, the prediction business is full of people who get it wrong every year.  And that has never stopped anyone, including me.  

Monkeyshines Over Monkeypox Outbreak

Editors Note:  With apologies to the Babylon Bee, this column is meant to be humorous and satirical. It is a complete fabrication. Don't spend your valuable time at Snopes website fact-checking the details. The Washington Post would  give it five Pinochios. It is a work of fiction. 

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Dr. Anthony Fauci, El Jefe of an agency called NIH, issued an urgent warning about the spread of Monkeypox.  There have been 92 cases in 12 countries.  The oldest living federal government executive appealed to Americans to take Monkeypox "really, really seriously."

"We can't let our guard down," Fauci told a media conference.  "I'm still mad that some Red States dropped masking requirements during COVID. That ain't happening again on my watch.  The Monkeypox scourge is an existential threat to our very civilization. Even in Florida."

The saintly Fauci, an icon on morning television, explained that Monkeypox is spread through close contact with people, animals or material infected with the virus.  Human-to-human contact is believed to occur through respiratory droplets,  according to the World's Worst Health Organization (WWHO).

"Everyone will need to mask up," the diminutive doctor told reporters, straining to get a view of him.  "One of the first symptoms likely to appear is an insatiable appetite for bananas.  Others signs include walking on all fours, picking at sores on your body and swinging from tree-to-tree."

In rare cases, Fauci said some individuals may grow long, furry tails after four weeks.  "It usually only occurs in males because, let's face it, some men act like apes.  Especially those dimwits who won't follow the science.  They think Monkeypox is just like having the flu."

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, advised the most vulnerable in the population will need two pox shots and 14 boosters. "Those most at risk are Americans with hairy bodies," she warned.  She recommended full body waxes as a precaution. 

Walensky, formerly with the Flying Walenskies, promised her agency would send 10 billion home tests kits to Americans over the next 20 years.  In addition, the CDC is urging the use of masks indoors, outdoors, in your bed and in the closet, while you cower in fear of the pox.

The CDC honcho urged the Department of Justice to hunt down and arrest anyone appearing in public without a mask.  Merritt Garland issued a statement pledging his department would deputize a self-righteous squad of virtual signaling elites to aid in the effort to Mask Up America.

"Mask vigilantes are just the first step,"Garland revealed.  "There will be $1,000 bounties paid to  people who snitch on their neighbors." Asked by a reporter if this was unconstitutional, Garland replied: "Under our constitution there are no absolute rights.  The only rights are those granted by the DOJ."

WWHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus (yeah, that's his real name) called on all countries to institute harsh lockdowns like those China employed during the COVID pandemic. "No one should be allowed out of their house, even for a Starbucks latte.  No trips to grocery stores either."

The Ethiopian WWHO master challenged a reporter's question about the severity of such lockdowns. "What would you rather be--well-fed or alive?" Tedros (etc) barked.  "Look how well this has worked in China.  Locking people up helps the government keep track of everyone. It's genius."

The federal Department of Agriculture tasked the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service to round up monkeys in America's zoos and place the primates in isolation to protect the public. Zookeepers will be quarantined for the next six months to prevent the spread of Monkeypox.

(If you're shaking your head in disbelief, your federal government is so large it does have an Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service to enforce the Animal Welfare Act approved by Congress in 1966. Your tax dollars pay for it. Don't you feel safer?)

The New York Times, Washington Post and ABC, CBS and NBC praised the administration for its quick action on Monkeypox.  "We may be running out of gasoline, infant formula, while inflation is wiping out ordinary people's savings, but the nation's health is THE priority," the media echo chamber gushed.

Forty-three scientists with federal government grants, the entire intelligence community, eight retired Postmasters and a couple of homeless people in San Francisco took out an ad in the Wall Street Journal appealing to Americans to become sheep-like, following the health shepherd Fauci.

When pressed on the science behind the monkeypox restrictions, Dr. Fauci became defensive.  "I am science. We don't need research. That's why we are allies with the United Kingdom and Israel.  They do scientific studies.  I don't need a study to tell me Monkeypox is bad, bad, bad."

Within hours of the media show, President Biden signed his 110th executive order, this one requiring grocery stores to pull bananas from store shelves.  In addition, songs and books mentioning the word "monkey" have been banned. "Monkey is now a four-letter word," the president said earnestly. 

Polls show Americans plan to remain unmasked.  However,  77% of the population believe monkeys have the right to self-identify as elephants. "This could end the Monkeypox crisis," Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell said.  "But I guess then we'd have elephants showering with monkeys."

Lessons From Pandemic: Public Trust Easily Lost

Since the beginning of the pandemic, disciples of Dr. Anthony Fauci demanded adherence to science.    Anyone who challenged the octogenarian medical advisor was labeled a science denier. That shielded Dr. Fauci and his partners at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from legitimate professional criticism.

With the protection of the legacy media, Dr. Fauci and the CDC pushed for isolating an entire country and in the process shut down the world's biggest economy.  They issued calls for mask and vaccination mandates.  They lectured Americans on how many family members could attend a Christmas gathering.

In the beginning,  Americans generally heeded the health warnings. They were frightened by dire news reporting, often lacking context, about the virus.  The New York Times and other newspapers carried updated COVID death and case counts on the front pages. Fear was a weapon for compliance.

When miracle vaccines were introduced at the end of 2020, there appeared a light at the end of pandemic tunnel. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris evolved from suggesting the vaccines were rushed into production to becoming its biggest cheerleaders. Vaccines would halt the pandemic.

Administration officials, including the president, donned masks on every occasion, even wearing one as they walked  to the podium in a nearly empty room.  They were following the science.  Masks work to protect the wearer from spreading or contracting the contagious virus. No one questioned the science.

Just when there appeared to be a rising optimism for a return to normal, President Biden unleashed executive orders to require vaccinations for Americans in businesses, government, the military and health care workers.  The federal government usurped responsibility for Americans' health decisions,.

This appeared to many legal scholars to be unConstitutional, a breach of freedom.  Court cases were filed by a growing number of states. Americans were divided into two camps: those who believed it was necessary to force Americans to get the jab versus those who wanted to make their own choice.

By mid-year in 2021, more Americans were wearying of the never ending mandates.  They wanted to exercise their right of freedom from authoritarian rules.  States began lifting mask mandates, opening schools, liberating citizens from Washington's vaccination obsession and resuming normal life.

Clearly,  politics not science is carrying the day. Never was it more clear when Democrat states New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts and California announced last week they are revising or dropping mask mandates.  Mandates are deeply unpopular with voters.

Ironically, these moves come at a time when the spread of COVID remains rampant.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans are getting infected every day.  More than 3,000 are dying. In January, COVID killed more Americans than the flu has in three years.  There were 55,000 deaths, reports the CDC.

The seven-day fatality average in January was the highest point it has been since last winter before vaccines were widely available. Omicron is expected to push the U.S. total deaths past the one million mark, according to Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at University of California-Irvine.

So has the science of masks and vaccinations changed?  Mask policies are the victim of an admission by the CDC that a cloth mask is virtually useless against the spread of COVID.  And there have been thousands and thousands of so-called breakthrough cases of the fully vaccinated.

This month the CDC released a report showing that the effectiveness of the booster shot for fully vaccinated individuals begins to wane just four months after the jab, adding to public skepticism.  In another surprising move, the FDA postponed its decision on a Pfizer vaccine for children four and under.  

These are signs of a broad concession that vaccines are not the Holy Grail scientists once thought they were.  The are better than no protection against COVID, especially for high risk Americans, but the vaccines do not last as long as the CDC and Dr. Fauci claimed at one time.

As a result, there has been a near total collapse of faith in the government, the CDC and Dr. Fauci in particular, when it comes to the pandemic.  A NewsNationaPoll, conducted by Decision Desk HQ, found that a meager 15.5% trust the president and only 31% trust Dr. Fauci.

Other polls may show higher trust levels, but the research confirms Americans are losing faith in public health officials, particularly those in Washington.  An ABC News survey found that 43% of Americans do not trust the CDC.  Faith in Mr. Biden on the Coronavirus skidded to 37% in January.

The new media fared even worse.  One poll found that only one-in-ten Americans trust the information churned out by the news media on the pandemic.  At the same time, fully two-thirds of Americans trust the advice of their primary care provider on COVID.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll reflects the growing resentment of Americans with continuing restrictions.  In the survey, 75% of Americans expressed frustration and fatigue over the current state of the COVID pandemic. Fully 77% believe it is inevitable most people will be infected.

Some Democrat and Republican governors, eyeing upcoming midterms, are feeling the heat. That explains the about face on mask mandates and the softening of vaccine mandates.  Despite the administration mandates, 63.6% of Americans are fully vaccinated as of January. 

Politics is trumping science.  As the pandemic has stretched through the months, the line between science and politics has been blurred. That partly explains the erosion of public trust.  However, in a pandemic, trust in government and in one's fellow citizens is key to successful communications.

Dr. Fauci and the CDC were cast in the dominant role of the disseminating information on the virus.  It was incumbent on those speaking for the administration to be accurate, transparent, and truthful. When decisions are communicated, Americans expect facts to support the health directive. 

Unfortunately, the keepers of the information fell into a pattern of vacillating between contradictory positions, often igniting the flames of disinformation.  Worst of all, instead of admitting mistakes or just acknowledging the answers were elusive, Washington's health officials were unrepentant. 

Meanwhile, scientists, epidemiologists and health experts who disagreed with the prevailing advice from Dr. Fauci and the CDC were censored.  They were booted off social media.  Their studies were scrubbed from scientific websites  Despite their credentials, they were not allowed to have a dissenting opinion.

The censorship was conducted with the full-throated backing of Dr. Fauci, the CDC and the administration.  The move backfired.  When you end debate on a novel virus and insist on only one version of science, public mistrust deepens.  Americans are smarter than government officials believe.  

Now even Dr. Fauci has joined the billowing chorus of health officials in predicting the "full blown" pandemic could be ending soon.  He admitted that more health decisions will "increasingly be made at the local level rather than centrally" mandated.  

Then the face of the pandemic did the unthinkable by adding: "There will also be more people making their own decision on how they want to deal with the virus." Hate to burst his self-inflated ego but many Americans have been doing this since the winter of 2020 passed.

The inimitable doctor and the CDC should take stock of their communications missteps.  The lesson is trust is easily lost if Americans believe they are not getting the entire story.  Every contradictory directive, unexplained advisory and inflexible restriction chips away at public trust.

Communications also should be tailored to specific audiences.  At the start of the pandemic, more information should have been directed at the most vulnerable: the elderly, immune compromised and those with comorbidities.  Instead, the government aimed its information at the general public.

Defenders of Dr. Fauci and the CDC will retort: the COVID virus was an epidemiological mystery that required more than a year to unravel. Fair enough.  But it behoved officials to admit they didn't have all the answers. Temper advice with a caution that it is subject to change as more facts are known.

In a free society, health officials will fail or succeed in dealing with a pandemic by mobilizing public trust in the government and among its citizens.  A thorough airing of the contrarian views from health experts is healthy. Showing trust in citizens to do the right thing is crucial. 

Those are valuable lessons for health authorities to remember during the next pandemic.

Students: The World's Forgotten COVID Victims

Human Rights Watch estimates there are 1.5 billion kindergarten through high school age children no longer in school.  That number includes 56.4 million kids in the United States.  Children have been forced to abandon a key part of their education by the global response to the COVID pandemic.

Months after the decisions were made by governments worldwide to shutter schools a few courageous educators now are speaking out about the devastating harm that has been done to the educational progress of students.  Some are even second guessing continuing school closures.

Never before have American students endured such prolonged school closures.  This is uncharted territory with no guarantees for restoring learning outcomes.  The patchwork of virtual learning solutions to deliver education to students has been haphazard at best and almost nonexistent at worse.

Those offended by the term "haphazard" should do research on the myriad of plans that were cobbled together by various districts.  Some used Zoom video conferencing for an hour a week.  Others emailed lessons to children.  Many just gave assignments to parents to "teach" kids math and reading.

On that last point, "home schooling" became a catch all term for assigning parents the duties of a teacher.  Parents, many of whom were working from home, suddenly took on the extra burden of classroom educator.  Parents get an A+ for effort, but they endured extraordinary pressure.

Former Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman, who helps run City Fund, an education non-profit, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post that should be required reading for all parents.  His assessment of the impact on students is an indictment of slapdash virtual learning.

"Classes are going online, if they exist at all.  The United States is embarking on a massive, months-long-virtual-pedagogy experiment, and it is not likely to end well.  Years of research shows that online schooling is ineffective--and that students suffer significant learning losses when they have a long break from school."

Precious few schools had ever used virtual learning technology pre-pandemic.  Teachers were left to their own devices to use existing tools.  Many designed creative solutions under adverse circumstances.  However, teachers know here is no substitute for classroom learning.

Virtual learning only can work if all students have equal access to computers, Ipads or similar devices.  A Pew Research Report issued in March exposed the obstacles to online education.  Researchers found that 25% of lower income households do not even have access to a computer.

In the same report, Pew discovered that 15% of U.S. households with school-age children have no high-speed Internet connection.  The numbers, of course, are higher for African-American (25%) and Hispanic (17%) households.  The data underscores the impediments to virtual learning.

Huffman, recognizing these limitations, provided this sobering  assessment on what parents and teachers could expect from the current "virtual education" experiment:

"Our teachers are trying their best, but their hands are often tied by bureaucracy, limited student access to technology, the lack of lead time to prepare for this situation and the limited effectiveness of delivering school remotely.  Results will range from lackluster to catastrophic, with the largest burden falling on the poorest kids."

Huffman recommends eliminating some of the summer vacation and testing students at the start of the next school year to ascertain their readiness for the upcoming semester.  Without some barometer of children's educational progress, teachers and children will not be prepared for the next school term.

A Brookings Institute Study found children typically lose between one and two months progress after a 10-week break.  Now consider that most kids will have had been out of school for 24 weeks or longer when they return his fall.  Teachers will spend more time re-teaching kids just to catch up.

Some states, such as Washington, have already made the decision to not open classes this fall.  Others are leaning heavily in that direction. There appears to be few educators willing to stand up and take issue with state governments over what is best for our children.

The question no one dares to ask is this: Is closing schools for such a long period the right decision for kids?  Even to raise the issue is to risk being condemned as a science denier or a miscreant who doesn't care about every life.  But parents and children deserve a reasoned answer to the question.

Most scientists would argue schools should remain closed.  Nicholas Christakis, a social scientist and physician at Yale University, recognizes the questions around closing schools are difficult, but he offers data that shutting down educational facilities can play a role in reducing the spread of a virus.

Christakis, citing a paper in Nature in 2006, says school closures for a "moderately transmissible pathogen reduces the cumulative infection rate by about 25% and delays the peak of the epidemic (in that region) by about two weeks."  The paper used modeling to reach its conclusions. 

Christakis favors proactive school closures, instead of waiting until infected children show up at school.  "It's not just about keeping kids safe, it's keeping the whole community safe." Closing schools "effectively requires parents to stay at home," he added, which reduces social contacts.

Education experts don't discount the scientists' view but are worried about students.  Dr. William Bennett, former Secretary of Education under President Reagan, and Seith Leibsohn, a fellow the Claremont Institute, are lobbying for the nation to prioritize children's schooling.

"It was perhaps understandable that at the beginning of the outbreak, with predictions of millions of dead, that we quickly and immediately put a pause on our nation's schools.  But as evidence becomes clearer that children were far more affected by other and worse problems, the schools should be opened," the two pointed out in an article they co-authored.  Indeed, data supports their argument.

In decision-making about closures, experts agree a key consideration should be the susceptibility of children to the virus.  In the case of COVID 19, the most recent data suggests children have been among the least vulnerable. Initially, some scientists feared children would be hardest hit. 

As of May 23, there have been 43,614 cases reported nationwide for those 24-years old and younger.  The total number of confirmed cases is 1,271,490, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).  The CDC data does not provide a breakdown of data for those 18-years-old and below.

The number of deaths in the same age group (24 and below) is 174 nationwide. There is no comparable data for an-apples-to-apples comparison, but the number of ordinary influenza deaths among children is 144 this season, according to the CDC.  Total COVID fatalities stand at 96,202.

Proactive school closures appear now to be on the government's radar as one of the first steps in halting a pandemic. If that is the new normal, then school administrators have a responsibility to be prepared with the latest technology and teaching methods to make virtual education effective.

If educators oppose online learning, then plans should be developed on how schools can reconfigure current classrooms and other facilities to maintain a safe environment for kids and teachers.  Grocery stores and pharmacies offer insructive models on how to operate safely even in a pandemic.

Closing schools for extended periods of time without a plan on how to maintain the learning process is an unconscionable dereliction of duty to kids.  Expect school districts to complain their hands are tied because of funding.  Then it is their responsibility to create plans and apply for funds.

Every American will chime in that children are our future.  Indeed, they are.  Then it is our responsibility to protest against treating their education during a pandemic as nonessential to save lives.  What about the children's lives and futures?  Don't we owe them more than this?