Covid Journal, Sept 9, 2020
‘Back to School’
Welcome back everyone. After nearly 6 months ‘away’, unions, teachers, administrators, students, parents and everyone else tied to the educational system are all adding their own ingredients to the Covid stew.
While teachers have had ‘6 months off’ (as many would interpret this government-imposed ‘pause’, remember that if you’re going to get frustrated with anyone, here’s a list of the pecking order of ‘blame game’:
- The Premier, Doug Ford
- The Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce
- Deputy Minister of Education
- Trustees
- Local School Board Directors & Administrators
- Superintendents
- Principals
- Vice-principals
- Unions
- Department heads
- Teachers
Parents have to engage with every level, an exhausting process.
As other governments cancel events, terminate large gatherings and politicians continue with the ‘safe-distance’ protocols, give out more money to large companies that don’t need it, we are cramming our kids into smaller spaces with less support staff than ever.
Over the months, the education portfolio has been a particular ‘bee in my bonnet’ because I’ve come to realize how critically important it is to the smooth and effective functioning of our overall economy.
My conclusion always seems to net out the same, regardless of the scenario: we’ve ignored this portfolio for too long and drastic changes are needed.
Of course, there are no easy fixes, but Ford and Lecce seem to be leveraging the pandemic to pummel education budgets and class sizes, humiliate teachers and push boards into making irreparable decisions, such as creating their own online platforms, replicating bureaucracy and content in a confusing and ‘hodge-podgey’ kind of way.
As we are forced to cram kids into classrooms despite shutting down gatherings for weddings, funerals and other life events (an absurd cruelty in itself), the hypocrisy of government decision making is exposed over and again.
We need to temporarily freeze the budgets of local school boards, but also prevent them from using anything other than the TVO’s Independent Learning Centre (ILC). Parents that register their kids with ILC shouldn’t have to ‘withdraw’ their kids from the local boards (thereby affecting the budget calculations and formulae for funding) and as the number of kids get reduced, boards should be able to adjust (ie. reduce) class sizes accordingly, at least temporarily. Kids that take ILC courses should also be allowed to participate in-class at the school that’s in their area … once everyone in their family is comfortable with proceeding with ‘normal’ choices.
This is a logical adaptation to the situation because ALL people are adjusting at different rates. Many of us are still in a state of shock. Many of us are comfortable with small and maybe even large gatherings of people, especially if we know they’ve tested negatively for Covid (something that should be a routine procedure with kids that attend school in person).
Finally, never have I felt more helpless than when having to decide on the fate of my child. It’s just WRONG that I have to choose between working and protecting my child. They should be one and the same. I shouldn’t have to feel like I’m participating in a giant rat-cage experiment, with results to be analyzed by sociopaths that only understand numbers.
A Viable D-fense Against Covid?
Are we looking at Covid completely wrong?
This articles describes how the Bradykinin hypothesis is an important consideration with Covid. It basically states that Covid tricks our immunity and overall health.
The hypothesis provides a model that explains many aspects of Covid-19, including some of its most bizarre symptoms. It also suggests 10-plus potential treatments, many of which are already FDA approved. Jacobson’s group published their results in a paper in the journal eLife in early July.
Quotes:
- ventilators have proven less effective in treating advanced Covid-19 than doctors originally expected
- Patients can suffocate even while receiving full breathing support
- bradykinin storms could create arrhythmias and low blood pressure, which are often seen in Covid-19 patients.
- MRI studies in France revealed that many Covid-19 patients have evidence of leaky blood vessels in their brains.
Treatments? Good news – there are already several FDA-approved drugs that exist that can treat most of the conditions explored in the article and with patients of Covid.
Even better news? Vitamin D – an over-the-counter, readily available product in multiple formats – is a KEY defense mechanism that everyone should be consuming to help mitigate some of the potential ‘infiltration’ of Covid. NOT a cure, but helpful in reduing SEVERITY.
he vitamin is involved in the RAS system and could prove helpful by reducing levels of another compound, known as REN. Again, this could stop potentially deadly bradykinin storms from forming. The researchers note that vitamin D has already been shown to help those with Covid-19. The vitamin is readily available over the counter, and around 20% of the population is deficient. If indeed the vitamin proves effective at reducing the severity of bradykinin storms, it could be an easy, relatively safe way to reduce the severity of the virus.
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