It’s Time to Stand Up for Our Kids

Everyone in the household caught COVID – and we assume it was the Omicron variant, as the symptoms were very mild.  In fact, Lucy, our two-year-old – we wouldn’t have known but for the fact her daycare required her to take a COVID test a few weeks back, which ended up being positive.  Lucy has had Roseola and RSV before – and both were much more severe, in terms of symptoms.  With COVID, she had a runny nose and a slight cough.  She couldn’t go back to school for 10-days or so, despite the fact she and her classmates have an extremely low risk, all the teachers are vaccinated and the daycare rarely shutdown during the more severe Alpha and Delta waves.  Nothing makes sense anymore – and I am struggling to move forward in this non-sensical world, especially here in the Bay Area.  I believe the Health Officer, Sara Cody, is the antichrist who hates children, so wants them to arbitrarily cover their faces forever. 

Fuck her, and fuck any other “Health Officer” who thinks “masks are benign,” as young children are experiencing speech development delays, and older kids suffer from a mental health crisis, along with soaring drug overdose deaths that far outpace COVID deaths in younger demographics.  These Health Officers, who are just scared adults, have been scapegoating kids as “super spreaders” this whole time, and our kids have suffered enough at this point.  So much fear mongering around kids has happened – that both parents and teachers have become scared of them, which is very sad.   My oldest daughter always wants to wear a mask now – and is scared to be on her school campus without one on her beautiful face, because she will get in trouble.  It breaks my heart to see that – and for me to see grown adults, cowards – force my child to do something that makes zero sense.  She even got vaccinated for things to be “normal” again – but nothing has changed.  No normalcy has been reimplemented in San Jose – and the leadership should be ashamed.

My patience has worn thin, and the recent experience I just described – after all of us had COVID, left me asking “is this what we’ve been locked down for this whole time?”  Literally, I had the flu in 2014 and that shit was no joke with a 104 temperature as I felt like I was freezing cold for three-days, along with a cough that hurts my chest even thinking about now.  It was like Freddy Kreuger raking my lungs with his hand-knives each time I coughed. 

Now, I am not trying to minimize the severity of COVID for those who experienced severe symptoms or even the worst outcomes – but this whole “let’s protect the 1% of vulnerable by fucking over the 99%+ who have a very low risk” just isn’t working anymore.  We now know that COVID is a disease that primarily impacts the elderly and those with preexisting conditions – particularly asthma, obesity and diabetes.  We can make a much more positive impact, specific to health outcomes, if we stop promoting masks, and start promoting chronic disease self-management and a healthy lifestyle.  Lowering your LDL cholesterol and A1C are the “actually effective” masks – not some cloth face covering from Target.  Really?

I need the “leaders” in San Jose to stop advocating for fear-based public health policy, like masking babies and children – along with arbitrary and wide-spread testing of asymptomatic, vaccinated and low-risk groups, like kids and generally healthy young adults.  The testing programs don’t “keep things open” they actually cause fear and lead to shut-downs of important institutions, like schools, which are still being locked down because of scared and vaccinated/boosted teacher unions.  Isn’t that some shit?

The people still most afraid are the most vaccinated and boosted among us.  What do they really need?  Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome therapy.  If you’re still double-masking in the car by yourself, and you’re boosted up?  Get some therapy.  If you’re yelling at people in elevators for not wearing a mask, and you’re boosted up?  Get some therapy.  If you’re mad at your coworker for taking their mask down to get a sip of coffee during some useless meeting, and you’re boosted up?  Get some therapy.  If you think babies should cover their face and get a vaccine they don’t need to keep YOU safe?  Get some god damn therapy.

The 0-20 year old demographic make up less than 0.08% of all COVID deaths – both COVID and the Flu make up less than 1% of pediatric deaths, yet we treat COVID so much differently because of persistent fear mongering and wide-spread PTSD.

If I hear one more person compare the MMR and Polio vaccine to COVID, I will completely lose it.  Why?  Because the Polio and MMR vaccines addressed several infectious diseases that posed the HIGHEST risk to children – while COVID poses the lowest risk to children. Also, those vaccines were developed over decades – not one year.  It’s literally apples and oranges – and these comparisons are aimlessly parroted across platforms to somehow justify hastily vaccinating our kids for something 99%+ will not get severely ill from. 

It’s time to stand up for our kids.  The time has actually passed – but it’s not too late.  Our children, during these last two years have experienced learning loss, speech development issues, a mental health crisis (high attempted suicide rates), weight gains – and we are simply setting them back years.  We are acting like cowards.

It is time to remove all mandates imposed on children – and ask the fearful to remain isolated, as I am not standing by quietly anymore as my children suffer at the hands of scared adults who should know better.