It is 2023 and DC is demanding COVID tests from returning students

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Student classroom
Pictured is an empty classroom. (DONGSEON_KIM/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

It is 2023 and DC is demanding COVID tests from returning students

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It’s 2023. And yet this:

Students in D.C. Public Schools returning to school Monday from spring break must submit a negative COVID-19 test in order to attend classes, even as most school districts have dropped such requirements.

https://twitter.com/DCPSChancellor/status/1650210931585191936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1650210931585191936%7Ctwgr%5E1e0652121a5d5b7b3da532afbf2d2bf555955f85%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonexaminer.com%2Fpolicy%2Feducation%2Fdc-public-schools-negative-covid-test-spring-break

Look, people, COVID is over. Sure, the virus is not gone, but the fear of transmission and of mortality for most people disappeared somewhere in early 2021 when the first vaccines became available. If you didn’t notice, and you’re still driving your car with a mask on, then it’s because you’re living in a bubble. Personally, the last time I brought a mask anywhere, it was because I was cleaning out a shed at my son’s Little League facility that was filled with dust and dirt.

DC PUBLIC SCHOOLS BLASTED FOR BRINGING BACK COVID-19 TEST REQUIREMENTS

The omicron variant and its progeny ended COVID. They infected everyone, and with their much lower mortality rates, they transformed COVID from a pandemic into a reality that everybody must accept.

Yes, it taught us some important truths — for example, don’t trust experts so much. Don’t rent expensive downtown offices because your employees are actually more productive and happier working from home. But the actual fear of transmission is by now obsolete. It’s not protecting you anymore, if it ever did, so stop being afraid.

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Even worse, this is an attempt to harm children. From the first few months of the pandemic, the science showed that children are neither at risk of nor vectors of transmission of the virus that causes COVID. What’s more, how many Washington, D.C., parents did they think were going to comply with this requirement, given all the bellyaching we have heard over the years about limited internet access? Were the schools actually going to turn the children away when they showed up today if their parent had failed to upload test results?

Come on, people. It is April 2023. Come live in the now.

© 2023 Washington Examiner

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