We Should Shut Down All Swimming Pools in the United States Immediately to Prevent About Four Hundred Pediatric Deaths Annually

Do I have your attention? Let’s talk about why we won’t shut down all pools to prevent those drownings, nor will we shut down schools to prevent a comparable number of pediatric deaths from COVID-19. It boils down to being able to do other things to reduce harm, like fences and vaccines for each respective problem.

I recently mentioned on Twitter that people who were okay with four hundred deaths from COVID-19 in children so far in the epidemic were sociopaths. My definition of a sociopath is a person who doesn’t understand the feelings of someone else. To them, it’s too bad you feel bad about four hundred families grieving for children who had an entire life ahead of them. To them, the fact that 400 children in a population of 75 million, or so, children in the United States have died is okay and does not justify the public health recommendations and mandates to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Never mind that over 600,000 people have died and millions more will have long-term sequelae from their…