>>Tara: Hi, and welcome back to Questions
from Quarantine.
We hope you had a good restful break.
As you know, school is starting again and
we at Questions from Quarantine wanted to
do something a little different this time.
Not only are Dr. Margaret Bourdeaux and Professor
Juliette Kayyem experts, but they are also
parents of multiple children and dealing with
the same issues as every other parent in America
right now.
So we're going to film two separate sessions,
one where each mom puts on her expert hat
and the other takes it off, and vice versa,
to give you a sense of perspective on how
this is going for everyone.
So first I'd like to throw to Dr. Margaret
Bourdeaux for her perspective on school reopenings
and then we'll throw to Juliette Kayyem for
her perspective, as a mom of three on school's
reopening.
Margaret.
>>Margaret: Hi.
Yeah.
So school's reopening is definitely looming
large in my household, I've got one child
who starting high school, I, et cetera.
But I think the, the thing from a sort of
professional perspective that is becoming
quite clear, is, you know, okay, what a risky
proposition this is, with respect to controlling
the epidemic.
And I think that we are seeing, basically
we have one, one tool, one public health tool,
essentially that we've been able to implement
effectively that controls COVID and that's
basically like social distancing.
And so, you know, now this kind of, you know,
moment comes where we're all gonna reopen
and, you know, we don't have the other tools
universally in place.
And those other tools are things like having
buildings that are safe and are retrofitted
that have good ventilation and air filtration.
Schedules that are, you know, amenable to
decreasing transmission, universal mask wearing,
although there has been some really nice progress
on that.
And the contact tracing, is built out in,
in, in to very different levels of capability,
markedly, different levels of capability across
the country.
So, you know, the, the, the lowest, the common
denominator is that kind of social distancing,
and now to not be able to use that tool by
the nature of schools.
So, so yeah, I mean, I think we're, we're
walking into a very, very chaotic time, where
we are the point to lose control, the control
that we have, of the epidemic in some places.
>>Juliette: Yeah.
And, and as everyone knows from previous recordings
Margaret is a mother of four girls.
I am the mother of three, three older kids
and the school's issue is just it's so infuriating.
We ran out of time.
We ran out of time.
We just, you know, we, we did not take the,
the pandemic seriously.
And each week that we didn't take it seriously.
And the infection rates went up and the illnesses
and the sickness went up meant that you had
community spread, which meant that you were
putting at risk the very communities that
our kids were going to school in.
So that's the basic planning around it.
It's just we ran out of runway and we did
not take this seriously.
So as a mother, I'm pissed, obviously.
And,I'm, you know, before we, before we started
taping, you know, we're, I'm back from school,
six weeks away.
I have every, you know, I've I have, my complaints
are ones of convenience, not need.
So I just want to be clear here.
Like, you know, when I complained, I realized,
you know, I have no reason to complain given,
given the problems out there.
But it's a lot, and, it's a lot because it's
so monotonous.
Like, you know, we were saying right before
this, you know, is it monotonous or insane?
It's like both, right.
It is this, this idea of the fall unfolding.
My boys who are in high school are home.
The high school has a really good plan.
So they're going to have triggering assessments
in October, late October, November to see
if we can get kids in, you know, it is a lot.
And I do, you know, part of it is me and not,
you know, and managing boys that aren't the
most scholarly as I'd want them to be.
And a daughter who's taking leave from college
who's also home.
So all of a sudden you just have these dynamics
in the house that you had thought you would
either outgrown or actually have never existed
before, because they don't have any structure
to their... they've structured their days
they don't have structure to their future.
And that's, I think the challenge and I sometimes
wonder, like, sometimes I'll just stop and
like ask one of my boys who aren't the most
communicative, like, "how are you?"
And the other day.
Like one of my sons said, "this is weird."
And I just thought that was that's a lot coming
from him in terms of emotive, emotion, but
you realize it's just weird for a generation.
And the only thing I can say in terms of advice
is, you know, sometimes, you know, I can be
in good moods and bad moods.
I try to keep the bad moods to myself and
the good moods more publicly, but you know,
I, I do I do sort of feel like I'm the rallier
of the family, you know, that's just like,
"we're going to get through this," you know
what I try to do publicly, like, you know.
But I do tell the kids that history has found
them and I think it's our job, or at least
my job, and one of the reasons why I'm so
busy and probably more negligent than I really
want to be is, you know, we're just trying
to help them outpace history again.
And that's all I can say.
You know, that's just basically it.
>>Tara: Well, we are definitely living in
historic times.
We are thinking of you Juliette and our next
episode will include Margaret's thoughts
>>Juliette: Insane or monotonous.
That's going to be the dilemma of 2020.
>>Tara: It can be both.
Thank you so much for watching.
You can hashtag Questions from Quarantine
for your chance to be answered next week.
Thank you.
