Today we had childcare for the first time in 3.5 months. I finally had some time to breath, so I wrote a letter to @CAgovernor to implore him to prioritize keeping childcare and schools open while tackling the current rise of COVID in CA. I based this on the following 1/n

1) the fact that keeping childcare and schools open has a disproportionate impact on women. This is backed up by scientific studies. For example, women in the medical field are submitting 20% less first-authored papers (relative to men) than the same time last year. 2/n

2) Children in high-risk situations are at even greater risk of negative impacts when schools are shut down. For some kids, schools are the only place to access regular meals and mental health support. Further, they are a means for detecting and reporting abuse at home. 3/n

This one really kills me because we know there is a likely rise in abuse while kids are at home with the economic hardship brought on by COVID. So there is likely an increase in cases, and less reporting of them. 4/n

3) Keeping childcare and schools closed will exacerbate existing inequalities in education. We know that economic factors correlate with educational outcomes. And protective factors against this include access to childcare and parental engagement in schools. 5/n

4) We can open schools and daycares safely. There is a lot of data that shows pediatric transmission of COVID is low. Daycares that have remained open (e.g. 20K kids at the Y), have not had breakouts. And closing schools was not a contributor of controlling COVID in China 6/n

@CAgovernor, when making your choices about what to close and what to keep open as we face these rising numbers, please consider prioritizing keeping daycares and schools open. Bars, gyms, in-restaurant dining etc, should not be open before childcare and schools 7/7