It’s enough to make you want to slam your head against the wall.
A private school in Florida ordered students who get vaccinated to be quarantined at home for 30 days after each dose. School officials falsely claimed that vaccinations make those students, rather than the unvaccinated, a risk of spreading the coronavirus.
A relatively small number of San Diego County parents held their children out of school for a day to protest vaccination mandates, despite statistics that show the COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at protecting people from COVID-19.
An immunocompromised teenager advocated vaccinations and masks during a recent school board meeting in Clovis, Calif. The student was booed and jeered by adults attending the meeting.
All of this happened as even more information surfaced about how essential vaccines are to protect the public. The risk of dying from COVID-19 was 11 times higher for unvaccinated adults than fully vaccinated adults in August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 750,000 people in the U.S. and nearly 5 million worldwide have died from COVID-19.
The former is about equal to the population of Seattle, the latter to all the residents of Ireland.
Yet, it seems not a day goes by when there isn’t at least one action, position or statement at odds with the facts, logic or common sense about the coronavirus.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was fully vaccinated, died from complications of COVID-19. His death was used in some quarters to raise doubts about the vaccines. Not mentioned — or downplayed — was the fact that Powell’s cancer and the treatment he received for it left him severely immunocompromised, and thus more susceptible to the effects of the coronavirus.
Those breakthrough cases are rare, but they happen. People with such conditions are more at risk of illness and death from COVID-19, though the vaccines still give them more protection than they would otherwise have. This is not a secret to the Fox News hosts and others who spread misinformation.
The preventive measures to get ahead of the pandemic — primarily vaccinations and masks — are well known. Most people take them, but too many don’t.
That has been the case since early 2020, so it’s reasonable to ask: Why keep harping on it? Yes, there will likely always be a core that won’t budge and, protest as they do, they are increasingly being socially isolated for the protection of everyone. Here’s the important thing to remember when they complain about being denied certain things: That’s their choice.
But clearly some less-adamant skeptics can become convinced to accept reality, as increased vaccination rates and acceptance of mandates suggest. So banging home the truth — through repetition of the grim statistics and information on how to avoid becoming one — should never get old.
What never seems to get old are moves that are hard to fathom. The most recent poster child for this is Miami’s Centner Academy, which displayed dangerous idiocy, mean-spiritedness, or both.
The school sent parents a letter saying students who get vaccinated must quarantine at home for 30 days after each shot. The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses, which means a fully vaccinated student would miss 60 days of school.
The school said because children are vaccinated, they could infect other students — a claim that has been thoroughly disproved. How? The vaccines don’t contain the virus.
This is Flat Earth Society kind of stuff.
Though not as severe, there’s questionable judgment closer to home. On Oct. 18, some children in San Diego and around the state were kept out of class by their parents to protest school vaccine mandates. There were hundreds in San Diego County, thousands statewide. For perspective, more than 500,000 children in San Diego County and nearly 7 million across California are enrolled in K-12 schools.
Parents protesting said they object to not being allowed to make an important health care decision for their children, who, it has been pointed out repeatedly, already are required to get a handful of vaccinations to attend public school.
But when they say they are being denied the right to choose, that’s incorrect. Some parents said they may homeschool their kids rather than have them get vaccinated. Again, the choice is there.
All San Diego Unified School District staff and students age 16 and older will have to be vaccinated by Dec. 20. About 69% of San Diego County youths age 12 and older already have been vaccinated for COVID. Data suggests county schools are doing better at minimizing COVID cases than the general population is.
At the Clovis school board meeting, a dozen adults took turns calling the board “ridiculous” and asking trustees to “take control” and offer parents the choice of whether or not to immunize their child.
In between them, high school senior Rami Zwebti took the podium to argue for mask-wearing and vaccinations, while making some pointed comments to the people in the audience. He noted that protests against masks and vaccine mandates in other places had become violent and added, “I hope that the people in this room are mature enough to not behave in such a manner.”
Rami got an earful from parents and community members and, after speaking, left the room.
Clovis Unified School District Superintendent Eimear O’Brien said members of the school administration and police “immediately stepped in ... to make sure our student knew that our team was present to protect and support (Rami).”
Just another day in American education.
Michael Smolens is a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune.