There hasn’t been much Covid-19 news lately, beyond the arrival of a new booster against sub-variants that will probably not be adopted by very many people and reports that very low numbers of young children are getting vaccinated.
But even as the pandemic has faded from the headlines, the aftermath of this public health disaster is just beginning to become clear.
Test scores are significantly down for students, to an extent that educators fear an entire generation of youngsters have been set back in ways that will prove difficult to address. Anecdotally, my grandchildren confirm that a number of their peers remain far behind where they should be, especially at the second and third grade level.
The social development of infants growing up during the worst of the pandemic, when masks were almost ubiquitous, may have been affected in ways we don’t really have accurate means to measure. Again, I have seen anecdotal evidence of this among my youngest grandchildren’s peers in nursery school.
At least two entire classes of high school and college upperclassmen were cheated out of the normal rituals of graduation, social networking, and emotional development that normally occurs at those times. My youngest three kids and their peers all suffered greatly from what they missed during the Covid years and are dealing with the consequences to this day.
College debt is only the first in a long list of problems for this age cohort.
U.S. life expectancy fell due to the pandemic; more elderly people died prematurely, removing disproportionately part of the older generation from the productive roles they might have played in families and communities had they survived longer.
One consequence is that too many elderly people continue to cower in fear from living openly. They are isolated, suspicious of strangers, and unwilling to engage socially in ways that would improve their lives and those around them.
Probably worst of all the effects is the severe exacerbation of a political divide that is so deep and wide there is little hope that we will ever be able to repair it. And this has happened when we have the most conciliatory president imaginable. Joe Biden is not a divider.
But instead of bipartisan progress, we are witnessing the rise of a dangerous authoritarian impulse that appears to now have contaminated nearly the entire leadership of the Republican Party. Conspiratorial thinking has replaced factual analysis, threatening the stability of our society going forward.
There is no plan to deal with any of this that I’m aware of and I’m sorry to report that therefore there is absolutely no silver lining.
LATEST LINKS:
New legal filings paint Trump as a flailing liar surrounded by lackeys (Guardian)
Justice Dept. filing points to new legal trouble for Trump and lawyers, experts say (WP)
Democrats now have a 68% chance of retaining control of the Senate. Republicans have a 75% chance of winning the House. (538)
The Pandemic Erased Two Decades of Progress in Math and Reading — The results of a national test showed just how devastating the last two years have been for 9-year-old schoolchildren, especially the most vulnerable. (NYT)
‘The results confirm our fears’: Federal school test scores dropped during pandemic (Politico)
Why teachers are burning out and leaving districts scrambling to fill jobs (CNN)
UN inspectors finally reach Ukraine nuclear plant after shelling and emergency shutdown of reactor (CBNC)
UN agency says it was able to inspect Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant (Financial Times)
Top Russian oil official dies after fall from hospital window (Reuters)
Ukraine Takes Out Russian Bridge as Kherson Counter-Offensive Ramps Up (Newsweek)
A Draft for Russia’s Army? Putin Opts for Domestic Stability Instead. (NYT)
The Taliban now guard Afghanistan's National Museum, where they once smashed objects (NPR)
Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) announced he would resign from Congress to focus on his run for the Florida governor’s mansion. The Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat is expected to take on Gov. Ron DeSantis in November. [HuffPost]
Tech tool offers police ‘mass surveillance on a budget’ (AP)
Covid, monkeypox, polio: Summer of viruses reflects travel, warming trends (WP)
Southern Pakistan braced for more flooding as a surge of water flowed down the Indus river, compounding the devastation in a country a third of which is already inundated by a disaster blamed on climate change. We report from Jacobabad, the world's hottest city, which is now under water. (Reuters)
Scorching heat wave in the forecast for western U.S. this Labor Day weekend (CBS)
California wildfires prompt evacuations as a heat wave bakes the West (NPR)
VIDEO: California Algal Bloom Kills ‘Unprecedented’ Numbers of Fish
(Reuters)
There aren't enough young farmers. Congress is looking to change that (NPR)
Fossilised teeth help scientists uncover secrets of mammals (Guardian)
Africa's oldest dinosaur found in Zimbabwe (BBC)
Discovered in the deep: the incredible fish with a transparent head (Guardian)
Teacher Asks Students To Split Into 2 Groups To Simulate Ideal Class Size (The Onion)
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