COVID ‘failures’ Like Keeping Schools Closed Led to ‘eye-wateringly’ High Death Rates, Damning Report Reveals; Student Test Scores are Falling Across the World. Is the Pandemic to Blame? And other C-Virus related stories

COVID ‘failures’ like keeping schools closed led to ‘eye-wateringly’ high death rates, damning report reveals:

Doctors have released a damning new report on America’s “failures” during the COVID pandemic, revealing that keeping schools closed for longer than necessary and forcing people to mask outside led the country to experience “eye-wateringly high” death rates compared to other first-world nations.

Duke University professor Gavin Yamey and Drexel University professor Ana Roux said the pandemic “failures began at the top” with poor communication from the federal government, which demonstrated a “surprising inability to generate reliable information, communicate it in a timely and consistent manner and translate it into sound policy.”

“The absence of timely evidence and delayed or incomplete communication of what was known also led to overreach, which itself had harmful consequences,” the researchers wrote in the British Medical Journal, blaming the US’s division of state and federal government, which they said meant that Americans’ experience with the pandemic “depended on zip code.”

The experts cited mistakes such as keeping schools closed for a longer period of time than necessary, and forcing people to mask outside and keep six feet apart.

In some Democrat-run states, schools were closed even after research showed that they could reopen safely with the proper public health measures in place, like improved ventilation.

As a result, the study says, children missed out on learning and socialization — as well as the ability to gain natural immunity to other viruses by interacting with their peers.

Some liberal states also kept parks, playgrounds and beaches closed despite scientific research showing COVID was unlikely to spread outdoors or on surfaces — forcing people to remain indoors with little to no human interaction. —>READ MORE HERE

Student test scores are falling across the world. Is the pandemic to blame?

If the COVID-19 pandemic is considered the “stress test for education systems,” much of the world failed, according to results from a global assessment showing the sharpest drop in test scores on record.

HeyTutor, an in-person and online tutoring provider, looked at data from 2022’s Programme for International Student Assessment to see how students worldwide fared during the pandemic.

Data shows that from 2018 to 2022, students’ scores fell by a record 15 points in math, and reading fell by twice the prior record, or by 10 points. In all three core subjects—math, science, and reading—scores fell in an equivalent of about one-half to three-quarters of a year of learning. Science, meanwhile, remained relatively stable.

Prior to 2018, the assessment scores never changed more than five points in reading or four points in math. Education experts said privatization, high-stakes testing, and the need for more investment in schools, regardless of socioeconomic status, were to blame for less-than-stellar test scores.

The pandemic is partly to blame for the lagging test scores. The data shows that many schools, teachers, and local governments were unprepared to transition into remote education, and learning outcomes were impacted as a result. In addition, students struggled when distracted by digital devices, making it harder to concentrate. —>READ MORE HERE

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