“Mitigating” the Spread…According to Hillsborough County Public Schools
Ever wonder if the definition of a word has changed the more you hear it being utilized? During the 4-hour and then some long School Board Meeting for Hillsborough County Public School, the word mitigate was thrown around maybe more than the word political. Everyone wants to mitigate the spread of the virus. But what does that mean?
According to Merriam Webster online:
mitigate
1 : to cause to become less harsh or hostile : mollify aggressiveness may be mitigated or … channeled — Ashley Montagu
2a : to make less severe or painful : alleviate mitigate a patient’s suffering
b : extenuate attempted to mitigate the offense
The School Board and local health officials think they can make the virus, OR the spread of the virus, less harsh, by requiring that all students and staff wear a mask. Remember, this doesn’t mean stop the virus from spreading. This doesn’t mean eliminate the virus from the population. It just means to make it less harsh. We want kids in school [because parents are tired of them] for their education [that they are not really getting because administrators and teachers have virus duties that they must fulfill and severe brain drain and attention deficits]. And we don’t want little super spreaders [though we have no proof of that].
Well, did in-school mask mandates work last year before the virus shots were available? Was the virus or the spread of the virus less harsh because of masking in schools?
From my memory, all year, students and staff were absent due to the virus, but even more were out due to protocols related to quarantining.
But now the shot has been available to the majority of people for several months. And we assume that everyone who wanted a shot got the shot quite some time ago in Florida. The only ones that remain are the poor little children. And those poor little children are getting sick [just like they always have done] and going home and infecting their already vaccinated communities [that are supposed to be protected already] and people are getting the virus and the virus-virus. Cases, cases, cases…(Last’s year’s word was death, death, death. Pay attention!)
In 30 days of this latest public school mask mandate, let’s see if the virus spread is mitigated, OR, if in another 30 days after that, we start this show back up again with the virus, the virus-virus and/or the virus-virus-virus…mitigation be damned.
If we mitigate the spread, doesn’t that mean it will still spread because it will endemic? And might that mean that we will just keep playing the virus game in perpetuity?
