www.theepochtimes.com Open in urlscan Pro
151.139.128.11  Public Scan

Form analysis
2 forms found in the DOM

GET https://www.theepochtimes.com/search/

<form itemprop="potentialAction" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/SearchAction" action="https://www.theepochtimes.com/search/" class="search_form" method="get">
  <meta itemprop="target" content="https://www.theepochtimes.com/search/?q={q}">
  <label for="searchtext">Search</label>
  <input id="searchtext" itemprop="query-input" type="text" name="q" placeholder="Search" required=""><input id="searchtype" itemprop="query-input" type="hidden" name="t" value="ai">
  <a class="search_icon" href="javascript:void(0);">SEARCH</a>
</form>

<form>
  <label for="bright_newsletter">Input Email</label>
  <input id="bright_newsletter" type="email" name="bright_newsletter" placeholder="Email">
  <input type="submit" class="submit" value="SUBMIT">
</form>

Text Content

SEARCH


 * 
 * Lifestyle
   * Food
   * Travel
   * Home
   * Style
 * Health
   * Health News
   * Nutrition
   * Wellness
   * Aging
   * Health Conditions
   * Ask A Doctor
   * Men's Health
   * Women's Health
   * Medicine
   * Health Viewpoints
   * Children
   * Teens
   * Healthcare System
   * Health Science
   * Psychology
   * Surgery
   * Health 1+1
 * Inspired
   * People
   * Animals
   * Discovery
   * Traditional Values
   * Creative Wonders
 * Inspired Videos
 * Arts & Culture
   * Arts & Tradition
   * Performing Arts
   * Books
   * Film & TV
   * Music
   * History
 * Family & Education
 * Personal Finance
   * Investing
   * Wealth Management
   * Retirement
   * Budgeting
   * Credit Cards
 * Radiant Life
 * American Essence
   

 * 
 * Health
 * Health News
 * Nutrition
 * Wellness
 * Aging
 * Health Conditions
 * Ask A Doctor
 * Men's Health
 * Women's Health
 * Medicine
 * Health Viewpoints
 * Children
 * Teens
 * Healthcare System
 * Health Science
 * Psychology
 * Surgery
 * Health 1+1

Search SEARCH
featured Categories
Lifestyle
Health
Inspired
Inspired Videos

Arts & Culture
Family & Education
Personal Finance
Radiant Life
American Essence

Health Viewpoints: Is It a Crime to Be Exposed?
Any school or health department still pretending that Covid is deadly for
healthy children – or that it’s possible to prevent the spread of a cold – is
either self-interested or deeply deluded (monkeybusinessimages/Getty Images)
Health Viewpoints


IS IT A CRIME TO BE EXPOSED?

BY Jessica Hockett TIMEMay 15, 2022 PRINT

Imagine you’re back in pre-school.

You’re sitting on the rug, listening to the teacher read a storybook. Suddenly,
the nurse calls into the classroom. “Mrs. Jones? Can you send Bobby to the
health office right away?”

You’re not sick, and you don’t take any medicines at school like your friend
Michael does. Why do you have to go to the nurse?

When you arrive, the nurse tells you that someone else in your class has come
down with a sickness called RSV. She can’t say who, but she knows you sit next
to him at lunch. So he might have given you RSV, even if you don’t feel yucky
yet. 

She puts you in a separate room, with a mask on, until your mom can come and you
can’t come back to school for 5 days, because if you get sick, you might get
other kids sick. 

Fast forward to your high school days…

You’re in your 5th period math class, seated in the last row. The nurse comes in
just as the teacher says to take out last night’s homework. She leans over and
whispers, “I need you to come with me. You were in close contact yesterday
during school with someone who tested positive for flu. You didn’t get a flu
shot, so you’ll need to go home.”

You have no idea who she’s talking about – and she won’t tell you how someone
has decided you were in contact with this person, or why it matters. You’re not
sick and you shouldn’t have to leave.

“I want to stay in class,” you whisper.

“No, you have to come with me,” she insists.

“There’s a test tomorrow. I need to stay,” you counter.

The nurse leaves. Five minutes later, two security guards and a Dean come in.
Now it’s three versus one; you have no choice. They escort you out, call your
parents, and you can’t return until next week on the condition that you present
a negative flu test.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wish these scenarios were fiction, but they’re not. Each is the real story of
a child and a teen, respectively, in Chicagoland, from this school year. As you
can guess, the illness each student was “guilty” of being exposed to was the
eminently-survivable Covid-19.

I also wish these were the only students to which this happened over the past
two years. Sadly, millions of children across the country have been individually
forced to quarantine in the same manner – some repeatedly for upwards of 40 days
or more total. They did nothing wrong; they committed no crime. In most cases,
they’ve been denied due-process and equal-protection rights, simply for being in
the same airspace as a peer who tested positive for and/or became sick with what
is a low-risk respiratory virus for nearly all children.

The law and communicable disease code in my state (Illlinois) does not give
schools the independent authority to “figure out” close contacts, or tell
not-sick kids to stay home. Only local health departments can issue such orders
to a person, who can object to the order and go before a judge.

Unfortunately, months of illegal executive orders, agency workarounds, fearful
school boards, and dishonest legal advice have misled parents and the general
public about the limits of the government’s ability to limit freedom of movement
– including during a pandemic. In most places (Illinois included), we not only
need appointed & elected officials to follow existing laws, we need new laws
passed that ensure that children can’t be denied an in-person education because
they might develop symptoms of an illness.

The truth is, contact-tracing and exposure quarantines are for highly localized
outbreaks involving actually-sick people and pathogens that aren’t airborne,
seasonal, and endemic. To my knowledge, there’s no evidence that either strategy
has been critical to keeping kids in schools during this pandemic. Data
recently published by the CDC estimates that over 75% of American children and
teens had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 as of December 2021. (Marty Makary
rightly notes the current figure is closer to 90%.)



Any school or health department still pretending that Covid is deadly for
healthy children – or that it’s possible to prevent the spread of a cold – is
either self-interested or deeply deluded.

Evidence of the devastating impacts of keeping kids out of school – either via
whole-building closures or individual exclusions – will continue to mount. I
predict that class-action lawsuits will be filed eventually, but for now,
parents must demand their schools stop accusing children of exposure.

From Brownstone Institute. Republished from the author’s substack

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.



SHARE 42
Friends Read FreeCopyFacebookTweet
Jessica Hockett

Follow
Jessica Hockett has a PhD in educational psychology from the University of
Virginia. Her 20-year career in education included working with schools and
agencies across the U.S. to improve curriculum, instruction, and programs.

SHARE 42
Friends Read FreeCopyFacebookTweet
8 CommentsHideShow Comments -+
Policies and Regulations
LOGIN TO COMMENT
FINISH YOUR LOGIN TO COMMENT
VERIFY YOUR ACCOUNT TO COMMENT

You May Also Like
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Input Email
 * Lifestyle
   * Food
   * Travel
   * Home
   * Style
 * Mind & Body
   * Fitness & Nutrition
   * Traditional Wisdom
 * Inspired
 * Arts & Culture
   * Performing Arts
   * History & Culture Videos
   * Film & TV
   * Shen Yun
 * Family & Education
 * American Essence
   * People

Copyright © 2000 - 2022
We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your
experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. By continuing
to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms
of Use. More informationI accept×