8/12/21 "We Know Who You Are!" Tennessee's Parents Fight School Mask Mandate Even as Kids Swell Hospital ICUs

One out of five parents have vowed not to vaccinate their eligible 12- to 17-year olds, including two out of five Republican parents, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Of parents with kids from 5 to 11 years, a full three quarters say they won't have their kids vaccinated even if they become eligible, the KFF says. On the plus side, nearly 85 percent of parents were more open to having their kids wear masks in schools because of the Delta variant, according to a Frank Luntz/de Beaumont Foundation poll.

85 percent is a pretty darned high level of consensus for masking. There's plenty of kids being hospitalized for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or Covid19 as it is. Nationwide, nearly 1,600 kids were hospitalized last week with Covid19. Louisiana's pediatric ICU beds are all full, Tennessee's are expected to be full by the end of the week. At Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, 45 kids were hospitalized with RSV or Covid19 at last count -- and 25 kids had both!

So why was it that last week, parents in the wealthy enclave of Franklin, Tennessee started harassing and even threatening medical workers who advocated masks at a school board meeting? One mask opponent got disruptive and was escorted from the building.

After the board approved the mandates, parents surrounded the mask advocates as they left the building, chanting "We'll not comply!" Some yelled obscenities, and a few shouted at people who'd reached their cars with "You're not on our side! We know who you are!" and "You can leave freely, but we will find you! You won't be allowed in public again!" Torches and pitchforks would hardly have been out of place.

Do these parents realize that in a matter of weeks, they could be shopping for pink and blue caskets?

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/11/covid-children-hospitals-schools-reopen-503885

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/567374-parents-surround-physicians-advocating-for-masks-in-schools-we-know-who Photo: "I hate you COVID" by Matthew Almon Roth is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0