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In a renewed rage, I just allowed myself to remember that Daycare in NYC reopened in June, w/ minimal fanfare. Search for "Daycare NYC Safe" and you get a tiny number of articles - most notably this @nytimes piece, mostly neutral/positive, dated in Oct. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/parenting/day-care-safe-covid.html
Daycares serve younger children (obviously). Infants under 1 are at higher risk of severe symptoms than children. Small kids cannot distance or wear masks well (if at all). Providers have much more intimate contact w/ kids - noses, diapers, etc. No fanfare - minimal issues.
How many daycares in NYC are in basements? Did they demand new ventilation before opening? Did anyone care? Do we have 25 reports per day coming out about the risks of daycare? Do we have entire groups of people shaming parents about daycare? No.
We had the REC centers, which operated in NYC, throughout the height of our COVID hell, serving the highest risk children. Many in DOE buildings! No fanfare. No issues. https://www.npr.org/2020/06/24/882316641/what-parents-can-learn-from-child-care-centers-that-stayed-open-during-lockdowns
I had a Twitter chat with a reporter at some point in Sept and asked why they just accepted the boilerplate answer that the REC center model couldn't be replicated as "school". There is no real answer to why this is. Well, there is.
We know why. It's because the people who staff childcare facilities are low wage workers, who work for a paycheck. They will not get paid if they don't work, and therefore there is incentive to make the system work. I don't particularly love this form of capitalism.
But this is the reality. Childcare has been working - not only in NYC, but across the US (and obviously the globe). It does not get attention, because people simply do not care about the workers.
It was/is never about the kids or the families. It works, as long as we don't call it "school", and as long as the person staffing it doesn't have the title of "educator" or "union member". It's not about safety, and I'm not going to accept the gaslighting anymore.
