[debacle]

The number of children that are going to die this year as a result of the mental health burdens being placed on them by incredibly willing adults is far greater than the number that will die from all other causes combined.

Kids are having a very hard time right now. Hell, adults are having a very hard time right now. But children have it much worse. Very little socialization, a news media hellbent on negativity, overstressed parents, and more uncertainty about the world than I ever remember (and I remember crying in school on the morning of 9/11).

Schooling is important for the mental health of the most important asset the world has. Doctors have stated emphatically the importance of resuming schooling. At some point the adults need to stand up and be adults so that the children can remain children.

[maxerickson]

How do you look at how things are playing out in pretty much the rest of the world outside of the US and then arrive at this tone?

If adults were standing up and being adults, we wouldn't have 150,000 dead, with 1,000 more dead each day.

[ryathal]

How many deaths would we have if adults were standing up and being adults? Zero is wishful thinking an not being an adult. Avoiding all risk is just as bad as taking all risk, in this case every choice has lives on the line.

[maxerickson]

An actual competent, coordinated federal response starting in January/February and leaders all calling for mask wearing as soon as it became obvious it made some difference and we'd have meany fewer deaths (and probably a more active economy!).

Neither of those things come anywhere close to "avoiding all risk", they are just simple things that were not done, with no good explanation. Wearing a mask in certain public circumstances isn't emasculating or any kind of meaningful impingement on freedom.