While the Super bowl was being played in Iowa on Sunday 7th February 2021, a fresh public heath declaration was brought about and made effective in the entire state revoking the mandatory wear of masks, restriction of gatherings which includes at bars and restaurants. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds at a press briefing of Friday 5th February gave no reason behind the state’s restrictions. This directive is exactly a week prior to Iowa’s public K-12 schools being forced to engage in 100 percent in-person schooling.
The state has recorded since March of 2020 over 324,000 confirmed corona positive cases with a total of over 5,100 deaths. Notably there has been a reduction in the number of infected person and deaths from the time they peaked in mid-November 2020, where on a seven-day average 743 Iowans were getting infected with the virus while 30 deaths were recorded each day.
It could be said that the mandatory mask mandate in Iowa was half-done. When the State was at its highest in December 2020, wearing of the mask was only required if one was around a gathering for more than 15 minutes, where social distancing was not possible, indoor gathering limited to not more than 15 people and outdoor gatherings to 30 people.
On the other hand, large cities like Des Moines and Iowa City have up to now continued with their mask mandate and public gathering restrictions. In spite of this, the infection rate is still on an upward trend as community spread is rampant due to the spiteful laxity of the ruling class with the violent crusade to re-open schools and economy.
Reynold’s, a barefaced Trump protestor has wildly carried out group freedom in Iowa, and this has resulted in one of the highest death rates recorded in the country of 1,619 per million. Iowa is ranked 47t in the vaccine roll-out with approximately 7 percent of the Iowans having already received one of the 2 doses.
Needless to say, that as a result of well recorded increases in community spread and via public the re-opening of public schools, Iowa will witness thousands and more unnecessary deaths. The pandemic’s impact is expected to be compounded by the UK COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7 strain which was discovered last week in Johnson and Bremer counties. The UK variant is much more contagious and may be more deadly; it is expected to be dominant variant in the US by March
Last month saw a new law passed by the State Legislature where in on February 15 Iowa K-12 schools will begin to carry out in-person classes for all students who choose to do so. Although the Iowa Educators were scheduled to receive the vaccine commencing 1st February, the States appalling roll out and its availability will only confirm that the educationists will be compelled to carry on work at the schools without the inoculation. Many district schools, in an effort to comply with the law, are offering students either a 100 percent –in-person or 100 percent on-line learning, removing fusion learning options that are allowed for the purpose of social distancing.
The State Legislature also passed a bill creating a “Student First Scholarships” which gives a chance to the under-performing public schools that receive federal assistance to transfer to private and charter schools and bring public funding with them. This legislation in fact enables public funded scholarships for private tuition and increases Iowa’s charter school program, while of course de-funding schools in deprived and working class areas. The pandemic has served the ruling class with an opportunity to ransack the public education system and transfer public funds to for-profit charter schools as well.
Iowa’s dangerous shove in pushing teachers and students back to their class rooms, with almost no vaccine or public health regulations being observed should be taken as a warning by all Educators and workers across the United States. This dangerous force to open up schools is the beginning of the rot to open up the entire economy and have parents go back to equally toxic workplace conditions. Although the vaccines are being distributed, the ruling class is looking at getting the most of its profits and no matter what, the death toll might be, they want the economy to re-open.
The Chicago Teachers Union’s strong push for a “safe return” to schools and the state’s teachers fight against the Chicago Public School system , the educators should carefully look at the entire working class and have a contingency plan and organize rank-and-file safety committees to be prepared for a general strike asking for schools and non-essential business enterprises and small businesses to be shut down with full compensation for its workers in order to end the pandemic.
