Weary of Fear

Last week I had to fly to Los Angeles on business. In keeping with my usual tradition of buying a newspaper to read during a flight I purchased a USA Today. You know – the paper that pledges “… hopes to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity…” Wow. What I saw was far from that pledge.

First up was the article by Hirt, Nicols, and Brugal “Coronavirus Pandemic – Schools – The Risk of Reopening.” Don’t understand why it takes three people to write this crap to begin with. Nor do I even know who these folks are. What I do know is that had I ever provided an analysis of data in the private sector as they did I would have lost my job. The point of the article seemed to be (I didn’t say it was a well written) that there is a greater risk to students, school staffs, the elderly (like me), and communities in areas (based on zip codes) where infection rates are higher. Duh. I wonder if these three went to college and paid all that money to come to that conclusion?

Now here is where they went wrong. The argument for opening schools is that elementary aged school children have extremely low infection rates and an almost nonexistent mortality rate. Additionally, school closure affects not just educational advancement but general health of the kids as well. These three highly qualified folks didn’t bring that up. AND their analysis was by zip code and not broken down by labor category OR age. Result: scare the parents and support the unions. And since the unions support the Democrat Party, then help defeat the current administration.

Then I got to the Sports section. The Sports Section! And what do see? An article by Mrs. Brennan “Science, Sanity, Win Out Over Tantrums.” In that article she lauds the Ivy League, the PAC 12 and the Big Ten athletic conferences for suspending athletics due to the Chinese Virus. She even called the Ivy League as “the smartest people in the room.” Really? Well, I have a child that is an Ivy Leaguer and I often wonder. So, Stanford folks, MIT folks, Notre Dame folks, etc. aren’t smart? Then she went overboard attacking Republican politicians Sasse, De Santis, Jordan, and Rubio as being “reprehensible” for not advocating the wearing of masks. She called them “so-called leaders.”

Well here’s some news Mrs. Brennan: Nancy, Chucky, Ralphy, Cuomo, and Newsome weren’t exactly out front in February on masks. What is reprehensible is the jamming of Chinese Virus patients into nursing homes causing thousands of deaths then blaming someone else for your own decision. In the article there was no discussion on the extremely low infection and mortality rates for kids aged 18 – 22 (the range that covers most college athletes). This article belongs on the Opinion Page. And Mrs. Brennan needs to be more fair. Result: She is trying to get more votes for the Democrat Party.

Several weeks ago I wrote a blog for people explaining how anyone can estimate their own risk of getting and dying of this Chinese Virus. I was trying to provide some logical thought and fairly help people. I was not advocating any politics. These articles just try to fear monger. They are trying to make people scared for political gains. America does not need this from a biased press.

I’m an old guy and I don’t get it