Ruining young lives will not quell our existential fears
In 2020, I watched — first with disbelief, then shock and horror — as schools around the world closed and children were masked and isolated. I could not understand what was happening or why. The data was clear: COVID-19 was not a significant threat to children — far less so than the risks we already tolerated every day from sports or car rides or swimming — even from the newly-verboten flu.
If safety requires us to indefinitely forfeit the most valuable parts of our lives, what exactly are we trying to save?
November 26th will be the final Thanksgiving for 2.8 million (the annual all-cause death toll) Americans. It could be my last — or yours. That likelihood is significantly higher for our elderly loved ones, too many of whom will not have seen or hugged their family in nine months.
This decision wasn’t about the kids
***On 8/5/2020, my daughter’s school district voted to push back the start date for in-person schooling from 8/17 to “at least” October. This is the letter I sent her principal within the hour. It was a shot from the hip and not my most eloquent composition, but the point survives the passion and I think it exemplifies how a lot of families are feeling right now.
I’m writing to you personally to let you know that I am disenrolling my daughter from school tomorrow in response to tonight’s decision by the school board to continue online-only learning until at least…
“The Curve Is Already Flat” was removed citing public health threat. Many of the experts now agree with me.
5/12/20
Dear Medium editors,
I am writing to ask that you reinstate, “The Curve is Already Flat” on Medium.com — not because you think the theory is right, but because you think it’s the right thing to do.
It was removed on April 5th and justified on the grounds that it contains, “Health claims or advice which, if acted on, are likely to have detrimental health effects on persons or public safety.”
The premise of the piece is that COVID arrived…
- Originally written for National Security Advisor, Col. Randall Larsen’s blog, A Good War, published 4/21/20 — https://agoodwar.com/the-ban-on-elective-procedures-is-killing-more-people-than-covid-19#more-258
- Colonel Randall Larsen, USAF (Ret) is the national security advisor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a senior fellow at the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University.
On March 15th, Janet Mills of Maine became the first US Governor to recommend statewide cancellation of all elective medical procedures. Governor Mills proclaimed that such action would, “relieve the strain on the healthcare system as Maine prioritizes COVID-19-related cases.”
That same day, the American Hospital Association (AHA), in cooperation with…
Here is our story and a timeline, told via text
*I have permission from all senders of these texts to reprint them in this article.
On January 26th, 2020, the Arizona Department of Health Services confirmed the first official case of the novel coronavirus in Arizona. The patient was a member of the Arizona State University community in Tempe, AZ.
We live in Tempe, too — literally across the street from the campus that matriculates approximately 52,000 students, more than 8000 of whom qualify as ‘international’. My four daughters attend four different schools, three of which are local to Tempe and one across the country in Pennsylvania.
We are exposed…
And what it taught me about my eating disorder
There was just so much blood.
The scalp is so vascular that wounds often bleed heavily and look more severe than they are. For a non-medical professional, it can be tough to tell the difference between a minor head injury and a life-threatening one.
The symptom that most concerned me was how every time she sat up, she projectile vomited. The retching was immediate and involuntary and I read terror in her eyes as the convulsions rocked her little, empty body trying to right itself.
The throwing up was indicative that her intracranial pressure was increasing, which can signal the…
A letter to my daughter on her 18th birthday
Sweet Baby Jane,
It’s still hard to watch you cry. It’s 11:59 on the eve of your 18th birthday and we just got off a call. You told me you’re lonely, even though you’re surrounded by new friends and gorgeous grounds and novel experiences. It’s your first birthday away from home and it’s a big one. …
Hint: It’s not for the money.
My job consists of telling strangers things about myself that I struggle to say to my closest friends.
It can be a real mind fuck.
Sometimes I think about changing my approach — specifically to publishing on Medium. I wonder if I could bang out three to four 700-word articles per day, maximizing the conversion of read time into cash, especially during months — like December — when money is tight and raising four daughters blurs the of the line between ‘We’re doing okay’ and ‘Will I make rent?’
In fact, I started this…
Short Fiction — Parts 1, 2, and 3
Part I — Lindsay
“Shit. That was close,” she said to herself as she recovered what she could of both her balance and her pride. The ice was thick on the concrete steps, but that wasn’t the reason she’d faltered. She was running.
Luckily, the street was empty at 5 am, so the only ones to actually witness her misstep were some wayward pigeons pecking at crumbs and the homeless man who frequently took shelter overnight in the shadow of the brownstone across the street.
The intensity of the man’s gaze — the way the streetlamp and the snow reflected…
A.J. Kay
Mama, writer, lover, fighter — I wear my heart on my sleeve because my pants pockets are too small. www.ajkaywriter.com
