Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[mordant]

I am glad we are not opening up schools, but I am very aware that the burden of doing so falls squarely on the shoulders of poor and lower middle class people, and it's going to wreck a lot of families/homes.

That is a problem only if the government doesn't help those families out by providing rent relief, extended unemployment benefits, and where needed, childcare. Also, at a bare minimum, continuity of health insurance independent of current employment status.

Instead $ are going to corporations with near-zero accountability, unemployed people can pay ridiculous premiums into a temporarily extended COBRA program, and the millions who will not be able to pay their rent this month can pound sand. In addition, they can send their children back to school whether they want to risk it or not.

Schools have become de facto childcare providers, apart from the latchkey issue, but one must not lose sight of the fact that their primary and original mission is the education of children. Therefore the point of reopening them is whether this will SAFELY provide education, not whether it will relieve childcare burdens on workers forced to risk their lives by returning to work, who arguably shouldn't be made to and wHere that should not be a zero-sum financial decision rather than a personal and family health and safety decision.