Biden

School Reopening Clusterf*ck

Tuesday, Chicago public school teachers said hell no.

Chicago teachers voted to refuse in-person work and switch to remote learning until Covid cases substantially decline or the teachers’ union approves school safety protocols. The blowback was fast and furious. Mayor Lightfoot threated to withhold their pay and tried guilt-tripping the teachers (who risk their and their families’ health) by accusing them of harming children’s safety, education, and nutrition.

People responding to Lightfoot’s tweets say Lightfoot’s own daughter attends a private school that switched to distance learning after the holiday break.

But the bars are open!

And then there was this ripper from a Chicago Department of Public Health commissioner:

“When I think of a big city that is open right now, in what world would we close something essential like in-person education when we have seen negative effects, when our bars are open.”

If Covid is OK for drunks and partiers, then it’s OK for kids and teachers. More wisdom from the professional/managerial class working from home offices like millionaire hospital administrators have been doing for two years while their ERs turned into MASH units.

No plans but full steam ahead

At the national level, Joe Biden, state governors, and federal and state agencies pressured schools across the country to reopen.

And open they did—with missing, sick teachers, bus drivers, support staff, and substitutes. With massive testing shortages (after two years of Covid, the feds still can’t get free tests available everywhere). And with millions of kids in classrooms wearing useless cloth masks (after two years, the feds can’t provide free N95s). What could go wrong?

To counter the predictable omicron debacle while keeping workers on the job generating profit, Delta Airlines directed the CDC to reduce workers’ Covid-positive isolation time from 10 days to 5. (Flight attendants union president Sara Nelson sent a “strongly worded” letter to the CDC but with no threat of labor action.) The CDC said yes sir to Delta, and the nation’s schools districts jumped on board too.

In the face of massive testing shortages in every state, some districts are trying the CDC’s latest test-to-stay plan, which is supposed to keep schools open as kids get infected. Under the guidelines, exposed unvaccinated kids can remain in school  if they “adhere to CDC quarantine guidance outside of the K-12 school setting and are tested in school.” 

Tested with what?  Schools don’t have a steady supply of tests or the staff to administer them. Test-to-stay is physically impossible in school districts with staff and resource constraints—that means pretty much all but the wealthiest ones.

Minneapolis public schools reopened with over 280 teachers out, but the school administration is determined to stay open. The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, like the flight attendants, also didn’t call for labor action, although union president Greta Callahan described the school staffing situation:

“It’s a disaster. It’s utter chaos.”

From another part of the country, a teacher says:

“It feels like walking into a trap…”

Chicago Public Schools Testing Train Wreck

Chicago Public Schools tried to test all its students before reopening. One report says that 70% of the PCR tests distributed to CPS students came back invalid and another 18% were positive.

Fedex box overflowing with Chicago Public School student Covid tests, CBS News, Chicago, January 2, 2022

25,000 test kits couldn’t be processed within the required window because of Fedex shipping delays due to staff shortages and weather. Schools reopened anyway, and students were back in class with no tests—until the teachers weighed in. (What management genius picked a mail-in test strategy when winter weather and sick pilots pretty much ensure failure?)

Vax, vax, vax—the feds’ one-trick pony

Tuesday, while Chicago teachers voted, Biden gave another press briefing on Covid preparedness where he yet again hectored the public about vaccinations and boosters,  hyped not-yet-available treatment pills, and cited the money given to states in the American Rescue Plan, which apparently solved all school districts’ problems of testing, staffing, and building ventilation. (Infuriating aside: One source says Merck is charging $700 for a per-patient pill regimen that costs $17.74 to produce. The federal government is buying 20 million treatment courses from Pfizer for $530 per course—no information on the actual cost to produce each one. Profiteering?)

And, as always, Biden blamed the unvaxxed for taking up hospital beds and causing death and destruction to everyone. After two years of Covid, the unvaxxed are dug in and not listening, which makes them the perfect scapegoat for every pandemic system failure and death.

Anything to avoid calling out profiteering, healthcare grifting, incompetence, hospital unpreparedness, and years of hospital closures, bed reductions, and short staffing. Anything to avoid mentioning that a pandemic has been predicted for decades. Or that both global and federal health agencies wrote detailed pandemic preparedness and response plans that Western governments ignored (too many to link). Or that the US profit-based healthcare system didn’t do a damn thing because pandemic preparation would have cut into profits.

The business class: Keep the economy open at all costs [to workers]

While politicians, media pundits, and the business class bloviate about kids’ education and mental health, the business press tells who’s really calling the shots and why. The business class needs parents in the workforce to keep profits flowing.   

Bloomberg, Dec. 29, 2021.

Workers are like…

CEOs Calling the Shots in a Global Healthcare Crisis and a President Lies to the Public Again

On December 21, the CEO of Delta Airlines asked the CDC for help as sick employees threaten airline profits [or as he phrases it, ”our workforce and operations”].

Reuters, Dec. 21,2021.

And just like that, the CDC changed its guidelines.

NPR Dec. 27,2021.

Healthcare workers too

Earlier last week, the CDC downgraded its isolation guidelines for healthcare workers undoubtedly at the behest of now-imploding hospital systems.

  • “Healthcare workers with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic can return to work after 7 days with a negative test, and isolation time can be cut further if there are staffing shortages.

  • Healthcare workers who have received all recommended COVID-19 vaccine doses, including a booster, do not need to quarantine at home following high-risk exposures.”

When do the frontline workers weigh in?

They don’t. They’re the ones taking the risk, they’re the ones dealing directly with the infected public and coworkers, they’re the ones who can’t zoom from their living rooms. Where are the goddamn unions? Writing letters to the CDC?

Biden lies as healthcare collapses

Last week, Biden was interviewed by David Muir on ABC World News Tonight. He made these statements:

  • “Last year [pre-vaccine] you had serious backups in hospitals that were causing great difficulties.”  LAST YEAR? That’s over now? 

  • “We are prepared for what’s coming [the Omicron wave].”

  • “Nobody saw Delta or Omicron coming.”

  • No, I don’t think [our lack of tests] is a failure. I wish I had thought about it a year ago, six months ago, 2 months ago…I’ve ordered  half a billion pills [he meant test kits].”

Lies:

  1. The US is not prepared for what’s coming; hospitals have been overwhelmed for months and months. The situation will only get worse. The workers themselves say so: “A reply to President Biden from California healthcare workers: “No, the country is not better prepared for COVID than last year!

  2. Scientists said from the get-go that with without vaccinating the rest of the world, we would face more, and more virulent, variants.

  3. Testing: It’s a complete and total failure. Vanity Fair just reported that in October the administration rejected a plan to provide free test kits for the holidays.

No tests and no masks

Quick, at-home test kits have been unavailable, and lines for PCR tests snake for hours, The currently sold-out kits sell for  $23. After January, Biden says you can submit claims to your insurance company—if you have insurance and want to spend hours of your time interacting with claims people. Cloth masks do nothing against Omicron; one article called them fashion accessories.  For Omicron, people need N95s (best), KN95s, or surgical masks.

People have to buy their own N95s  ($50 for a box of 20), or KN95s for $25, or surgical masks. Good luck to people who can’t afford it. Biden just approved a $768 billion 2022 defense budget, but the feds can’t provide tests and protective masks to save lives because some company has to make a buck. Tests and masks should be available to everyone everywhere for free.

If we’re all alive after corporations manage the pandemic, we can look forward to capitalism managing the climate crisis.