Forgiving a friend is different than forgiving Gavin Newsom. Brown University Economist Emily Oster — who I deeply respect — has a piece out this morning encouraging forgiveness for actions and words over the past few years: “a pandemic amnesty.” And I do think Oster is right that, between friends and loved ones, we should strongly consider forgiving pandemic…

From the Center for American Progress to the DNC to social media activists to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, the message was that it was unsafe to reopen schools. As a social democrat — I support Medicare for All, child benefit payments, social housing, and all the important elements of a robust welfare state — it gives me no joy to say this, but the Democratic Party decided to make political hay out of reopening schools in summer 2020…

Central Falls, Rhode Island and Clayton County, Georgia communicated with parents in very different ways. As cases and deaths tragically rose in 2020, many American parents were understandably scared about the risk their children faced from Covid-19. Turn on the TV? They saw this: Trying to relax with some funny cat videos on YouTube? They were likely served advertisements like this one — extreme…

Australian and Dutch school closures were political choices. Throughout the pandemic, the public was constantly told that “following the science” was essential to reduce morbidity and mortality from Covid-19, but as more and more countries publish reports assessing their pandemic responses, it is increasingly looking like one of the most disruptive pandemic measures — extended school closures —…

You never know when there will be a natural disaster. Journalist Matthew Yglesias shared an article yesterday about how school closures from natural disasters are now compounding the harms of pandemic school closures. Natural disasters across the country have disrupted school calendars — and, of course, when the power is out, even suboptimal virtual instruction is impossible. But for…

Ex-health minister declares that “we could have protected children and young people to a greater extent against the consequences of the infection control measures” Last month, former Swedish State Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell and former Norwegian Health Minister Bent Høie met at a conference in Oslo to discuss lessons learned from their respective pandemic policies. Tegnell noted that Sweden could learn from Norwegian care home policies and Høie — Norway’s health minister from 2013 to…

Top domestic policy advisor demanded school closures in New York. It’s interesting to look back at how powerful and influential people were discussing schools during the chaotic days of March 2020. …

Democrats better have a response. Today, on Twitter, New York City Schools social worker Justin Spiro shared a clip of Donald Trump speaking about learning loss and virtual instruction from July 2020. As I noted in May 2020, Democrats were allowing Republicans — and Trump — to own the nascent school reopening issue. …

He said it would be “a disaster” to “open and close schools.” In a September 2020 Financial Times interview, former Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said it would be “a disaster” to close schools as part of a longer answer about his rejection of lockdown-type measures. His dislike of national lockdowns is obvious. “It’s really using a hammer to kill a fly,”…