thoughts on the coronavirus crisis (part 2)

So far, this is week 3 for the mandated lockout from my worksite due to the coronavirus crisis.

image by Alissa Eckert, MS, Dan Higgins, MAMS,

for part 1  of my thoughts on the coronavirus crisis
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/03/thoughts-on-coronavirus-crisis.html

And here are more thoughts on the coronavirus crisis.

1. My situation as a non-teaching school employee

I work at a middle school library, and the schools are closed.  Only "essential workers" (administration, custodians, security) are allowed on campus, and only for limited times.

Teachers are now engaged in distance learning. For students with internet access at home, they can access lessons from their Google Classroom. For students without internet access at home (our district includes public housing and homeless shelters), they do worksheet packets that they pick up on campus on a grab & go basis.  There was talk of mailing packets (other schools do it), but admin was worried it would take too long to arrive. 

As for me, all I can do is take part in an all-staff teleconference every weekday morning in which were given updates.

For the rest of the time, I'm basically on vacation. Being that I'm a library worker, there's not much "work at home" I can do.

Some people are outraged that unionized state workers like me are "getting paid to do nothing". But if we're not getting paid from our jobs, then we would be applying for state money via unemployment insurance. Either way, we're getting paid by the state, so we might as well be keeping our job while "getting paid to do nothing".  

2. Distance Learning

Those who hate traditional learning are gloating at the idea that the coronavirus-mandated school lockdown is finally going to be the end of the oh-so-oppressive traditional learning. 

Not so fast!

Yes, distance learning does have its advantages. It can be a godsend for students who can't attend regular school on a regular basis due to illness. It can be a godsend for students who have to travel due to family reasons (note: my school has a large immigrant population, and some students have to temporarily withdraw from school if their family requires them to take trips during the school year). 

It can also be an option for students who want to avoid traditional school due to bullying. 

But distance learning does have its limits.

You can only learn so much from looking at a screen or reading from a book. Screens and books are great at teaching facts. But success is also based on learning skills, and skills require learning by action by doing with a guide on the side to correct you.


At our school, students who have to do worksheet packets (because they lack internet access at home) are begging for more help from the teachers, but due to the coronavirus social-distancing mandates, teachers can't be by their side.  That right there tells me that many students need the "oh-so oppressive" traditional learning at school campuses. 

Home schools can work when parents are well-educated academically. But even being well-educated doesn't guarantee being an adequate homeschool teacher. Let's put it this way, some great athletes became terrible coaches. It's not what you know, it's how you teach what you know.

Home schools can much harder for parents who aren't well educated. Most of these parents want to break the cycle for their children.  Even harder when parents are immigrants having difficulty with the local language and understanding the local school system.   

Some schools have given out laptops to students without computer access at home. At my school, it was talked about, but not implemented due to concerns that students might break it or lose it, and that it would be expensive to replace. 

Plus, I think students should learn to do things without relying on a computer all the time. 

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Many who dislike traditional education assume that parents will become more comfortable home-schooling now that distance learning is mandated.  Some will, but even more are like "please schools, take our kids back, we can't handle being with them 24-7 even though we made them". My school already heard such pleading from parents already.  


Most students also benefit from being around peers. It's what they look forward to every day when they come to school.   Memories with their school peers is what they will treasure for a lifetime.

Sonia Shah noted that the "hype of online education will be abandoned, as a generation forced into seclusion will reshape the culture around a contrarian appreciation for communal life.

from the article
“Coronavirus will change the world permanently. Here’s how.,” Politico, March 19, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/19/coronavirus-effect-economy-life-society-analysis-covid-135579

3. Work from home

For years, I see advertising for jobs that you can "work from home" without the hiring company being listed. I assumed those were scams. 

But now that many workplaces are locked due to the coronavirus mandated lockouts, many are doing work from home.

Some cheer the supposed end to the oh-so-oppressive traditional workplace.

Again, not so fast.

Yes, work at home does have its advantages. It can be a good option for people with disabilities or have family obligations.  It also benefits people who live far from the urban core who otherwise have to make long commutes.

The disadvantages are that teamwork is usually done best with a guide on your physical side. You can only explain so much over a screen. 

People joke that the coronavirus is a conspiracy by Zoom to get more people using it.

However, the coronavirus crisis has exposed the security weakness of Zoom.  People have hacked into Zoom meetings and posted very nasty messages.  

At one university, a student who had to do his dissertation defense over Zoom experienced having racist & pornographic messages pop up on the screens of everyone watching on the screen. This has happened at children's storytimes too!

Dennis Johnson, “Demand That Zoom Immediately Create a Solution to Protect Its Users from Racist Cyber Attacks!,” Organize For
https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/demand-that-zoom-immediately-create-a-solution-to-protect-its-users-from-racist-cyber-attacks/

Elizabeth Redden, “Dissertation Defense On Zoom Interrupted by Racist Attack,” Inside Higher Ed, March 30, 2020,
 https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/03/30/dissertation-defense-zoom-interrupted-racist-attack.

David Greenwald, “Racism and Zoom Bombing Is an Unfortunate New Thing,” The Davis Vanguard, April 1, 2020,
 https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/04/commentary-racism-and-zoom-bombing-is-an-unfortunate-new-thing/.

Hawaii's Department of Education has recently banned staff from using Zoom due to these concerns.  Google Meet and WebEx are more secure and are approved. 

4. Telemedicine

Traditionally, if you're sick, you go to the doctor. 

But if you're sick from contagious diseases, going to the doctor might spread your germs around making others sick.

Telemedicine has come to the rescue in such situations.

Now, more insurance companies are covering telemedicine session.  

As long as they avoid Zoom for now. 

Telemedicine will also be a benefit as it is an option for those who need a doctor's note to get sick leave, but can't leave the house while having a contagious illness. 

5. Sick leave

With the coronavirus crisis, public health officials tell us to stay home and not go to work if you're sick.

But the reality in many workplaces is that if you're absent, you don't get paid. 

This is especially true in many restaurants.  That's the worst place for a sick person to be working because that will spread germs to the food everyone will be eating. 

The coronavirus has prompted many companies to expand their sick leave options.

Most likely, this expanded availability of sick leave will most likely be government-mandated. At this point, even many Republicans will have to give in. 

6. Adding teleconference to Congress & legislature meetings

Tele-conference is not yet an option for Congress and for most state legislatures.

Expect that to change soon.

If a Congress member can't be in Washington DC due to health reasons,  maternity reasons, or out campaigning for president (too many to name in this primary), they should still be able to do a teleconference for important meetings and votes.  Tele-conference can also be a benefit in that members can spend more time in their district. 

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Some political writers (like Dana Milbank of the Washington Post) threw a hissy fit when Thomas Massie wanted a roll-call for the stimulus package in response to the coronavirus crisis. They were outraged that he was doing this when most Congress members are extra-vulnerable to contagious disease due to their old age. But Massie wasn't totally wrong in demanding a roll-call. Roll-calls keeps legislators accountable.  

Thomas Massie criticized the stimulus package by stating this

https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1242256222092439555

I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again: each bill should address only one issue! Congress should pass separate bills to deal with #coronavirus & I could probably vote for some of them. (I voted for the first corona virus bill) so many are trying to get their pork in this bill!

This is the attitude legislators are supposed to have. Keep the bills short and to the point! For each issue, vote on a separate bill for each issue.

I wrote blog posts on this topic back in 2011
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2011/06/your-senator-doesnt-want-to-read-bill.html

This time, it's about the "One Subject At a Time Act", which  will make each bill being voted on to (....... omg........noh!) to just stick to one subject!

Otherwise, it will be easier for bills to stacked with laws dealing with totally different issues, and members of Congress just voting for it, ALL OR NOTHING, just based on the title of the bill!

and also this (written back when Dan "the rapist" Inouye was still alive

No, Inouye doesn't want to stick to one subject per bill, because that reduces HIS power to manipulate the process! He wants him and his allies to put multiple issues under one 1,000+ bill without having us to understands what's in the bill! Having us understand what's in the bills REDUCES HIS POWER!  Giving us time to understand AHEAD OF TIME of what Inouye is about to vote on , will REDUCE HIS POWER! Having him just focus on one subject per bill will REDUCE HIS POWER!
 
Which is why Inouye and other members of Congress will NEVER agree to having short bills,  will NEVER agree to having the bill read aloud so that there's a public audio recording (that can be on YouTube) before they vote on it, will NEVER agree to give the general public time to understand the bill before it gets voted on, and will NEVER agree to stick to one subject per bill!
 
While the US Constitution is great in that limited the government's power, it didn't limit it enough. The biggest flaw with the US Constitution is  that it didn't require bills to be of limited length, it didn't require a 7-day notice to the public on the bill before it gets voted, and  it didn't require  bills to just stick to one subject!

As for the hissy-fit throwing writers (like Dana Milbank) who express faux-concerns of these votes putting old Congress members at risk of being infected, Thomas Massie had this classic response

https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1244915197690753024

Two reasons Congressional leaders don’t want remote voting for members: 1) too hard to twist arms through the phone. 2) wouldn’t be able to justify unrecorded votes. At a minimum, we should be holding public hearings on this virus using modern teleconferencing technology.

Thank you super much Thomas Massie. I may not agree with him on everything, but dammit, he is mega-correct on things I've just mentioned! 

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Here in Hawaii, we had a great editorial in the Honolulu Star Advertiser on how we can have open government (currently violated by governor David Ige) in the era of teleconferencing. 

Sandy Ma, Brian Black, and Keli‘i Akina, “Protect Democracy by Restoring Open Government in Hawaii,” Honolulu Star Advertiser, April 6, 2020,
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/04/06/editorial/island-voices/column-protect-democracy-by-restoring-open-government-in-hawaii/

>> Should a public body continue to meet, it should provide adequate notice of the meeting and ensure that the public can participate via videoconference, telephone and submission of written testimony, as appropriate.

>> In the event audio or video coverage of a proceeding or meeting is interrupted, the presiding official should suspend the discussion until the audio or video is restored. When operating remote meetings by video conference, all participating members of the public body should be clearly visible and audible to the public at all times. The intent is to ensure that the connection and platform are appropriate and stable to make public officials clearly audible and visible by all participants.

>> At the start of the meeting, the presiding official should announce the names of any members of the public body participating remotely. During a meeting for which only audio is being provided, anyone speaking should state their name prior to making their remarks.

>> All votes should be conducted by roll call so that those following by video or audio are aware of how each member of the public body voted.

>> Any documents presented to the public body at the public meeting should, if possible, be put on the website of the public body prior to the start of the public meeting.

>> At the beginning of any executive session being held remotely, all members of the public body should affirm that no other person is present in the room with them or can hear them.

>> The public body should record all meetings and make the recording available on a public website on a timely basis. 

The only type of people who would object to such ideas are lowlife scumbags who have something to hide.

7. Voting

Hawaii was already planning to have all-mail voting this year. This idea is becoming more popular in the era of the pandemic.

I previously expressed doubts due to my experience as an election day precinct official. On recent election days, I'm usually stationed near the machine that accepts completed ballots, and PLENTY OF TIMES, ballots weren't accepted because they weren't filled out correctly.  I mentioned in a previous blog post

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2019/04/letter-to-editor-no-chance-to-fix.html

I do not support all-mail voting. As someone who has worked as an elections precinct official, usually stationed near the machine where voters submit their ballots, there are always voters whose ballots weren’t accepted because they didn’t understand how to fill in their ballots properly. This is especially true for primary elections, but it also happens in general elections.

Had those voters submitted their ballots by mail, their votes wouldn’t have counted. At least at the voting precincts, the machine could catch their errors and we could give those voters another chance to fill in their ballots properly.

Let’s continue to have walk-in voting locations in every district so that voters who need help from a person can get that help.

Dale Ho of the ACLU did note that in an all-mail election, that we can have requirements that if there are ballots with errors, we can notify the voter to give them a second chance to do corrections.  However, in my experience as an election precinct official, some people made error after error. I'm not even exaggerating when I said that one voter took more than 10 times before he was able to submit an error-free ballot.  

from the article
“Coronavirus will change the world permanently. Here’s how.,” Politico, March 19, 2020,https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/19/coronavirus-effect-economy-life-society-analysis-covid-135579


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There are also people who want online voting. We did that option at the election precincts where people can do electronic voting. Nearly everyone refused.  All electronic voting is vulnerable to hacking, regardless of all the promises to keep it secure.  We need to have a paper trail, regardless of the anti-paper fanatics who demand everything to be digital! 

8. Regulations

Much of the response to the coronavirus crisis is based on the expansion of government authority. Stay-at-home mandates, government bailouts, demands for expanded government health care, expanded sick leave, and more.

But the coronavirus crisis also exposed the weakness of other uses of government authority.

Regulations that were getting in the way of actually solving the problem were finally being eliminated.

Some examples noted from John Stossel's article

John Stossel, “The Red Tape Pandemic,” Townhall, March 25, 2020, 
https://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2020/03/25/the-red-tape-pandemic-n2565634

When coronavirus appeared, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made its own tests and insisted that people only use those CDC tests. But the CDC test often gave inaccurate results. Some early versions of the test couldn't distinguish between coronavirus and water.

Private companies might have offered better tests, and more of them, but that wasn't allowed. The World Health Organization even released information on how to make such tests, but our government still said no. Instead, all tests must go through the government's cumbersome approval process. That takes months. Or years.

Hundreds of labs had the ability to test for the virus, but they weren't allowed to test.

and more

But the bed shortage is another consequence of bad law. Critical access hospitals in rural areas are not allowed to have more than 25 beds. Trump has now announced that he's waiving those rules. 

In some states, there's a shortage of doctors or nurses. That, too, is often a product of bad law -- state licensing laws that make it illegal for professionals licensed in one state to work in another. Trump said he would waive "license requirements so that the doctors from other states can provide services to states with the greatest need." Then it turned out that he could only allow that for Medicare; he didn't have the power to override stupid state licensing rules.

Fortunately, many states finally waived harmful licensing laws on their own.

It's good that governments finally removed some rules.

But the time that took killed people.

Once coronavirus passes, America should leave those regulations waived.

And we should repeal many others.

Anytime there's a report of a government reducing regulations, opinion writers act as if the sky was falling and that the government is allowing for corporations to be lax on environmental & public safety. 

If I was in charge of rewriting a constitution, I would mandate that most regulations require a renewal of every 4 years.  However, many regulations are the closest thing to eternal life on earth, and they only get eliminated during serious crises when lives are in danger. 

9. Trade

Within the last few decades, companies have become too reliant on China for manufacturing.

There's a saying about don't put all your eggs in one basket.

However, people in the Trump administration want us to put all our eggs in the American basket.

That's also ridiculous.

If I was in charge of a multinational corporation, I would have factories in different parts of the world. Have a factory in China, India, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Kenya, Dubai & more.

Why?  Because if there's an emergency in one part of the world (ie coronavirus in China,  9/11 in the USA) factories in other places can pick up the slack. 

Also, it makes more sense to have factories that can serve different locales. You can have factories in North America to serve the North American market, Asian factories to serve the Asian market, and more. And if there's an emergency that halts production in one place (for example, an epidemic in China), the existing factories in other places can expand production to fill in gaps traditionally served by the Chinese factories. 

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Some examples of how Trump's tariff fanaticism is putting lives at risk.

Jenny Leonard, “Maker of Purell Hand Sanitizer Denied in Request for Trump Tariff Relief,” Yahoo Finance, March 27, 2020,
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/maker-purell-hand-sanitizer-denied-120052178.html

With the U.S. now surpassing all other countries in the number of coronavirus cases and health experts estimating the peak may still be weeks away, President Donald Trump’s administration is having a harder time defending tariffs on health-related goods imported from China. 

That’s especially true for products used in the U.S. response to the pandemic that are in high demand but running short on supply, such as ventilators, surgical masks and hand sanitizers. 

Gojo Industries, the inventor and manufacturer of Purell-branded products, builds its hand-sanitizer and soap dispensers in the U.S., but a key input that ensures the dispensers work is made in China and subject to a 25% duty.

So, we are making it more expensive to import something as important as hand sanitizer? 

And who pays the tariffs? Americans do!  We end up paying more due to Trump's anti-trade fanaticism. 

10. The growing digital divide

The coronavirus crisis is pressuring us to be even more reliant on the internet than we already are.

But with rising unemployment, more will either no longer afford it, or those who didn't already have access will still be without access. 

So even more, those people will feel left out. 

Those from privileged backgrounds already have a hard time understanding how it is for people without internet access at home. These snobs already sneer at those who want analog options because they can't afford a computer.   This snobbishness is about to get worse. 

11. Demolition Man

As for those who demand everything to be digital, I'll just leave this funny link from the movie Demolition Man. Sylvester Stallone's character comes back alive in the future when some of our new social distancing habits become mandated. Sandra Bullock's character is from that future. Watch the generation clash in this classic clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jae38H1_j-E