A new study, out in Lancet, is at last drawing attention to coronavirus and children. Until now, children who have been ill were counted simply as a minimal part of the pandemic. However, now that there’s been a study that measures the metrics, the children of the world are front and center. It made me think that perhaps in the crisis mode that we’ve all been living for two months, we have given little thought to what this pandemic means for the children, the youth, and the young adults of our world. And still, the virus keeps coming.

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“Two distinct sounds have been competing in New York City’s streets during the coronavirus pandemic: the wail of sirens and the songs of ice cream trucks.” What a perfect dichotomy to represent where we are with the Trump Pandemic. Paul Krugman put it so eloquently: “As Andy Slavitt, who ran Medicare and Medicaid under Barack Obama, puts it, Trump is a quitter. Faced with the need to actually do his job and do what it takes to crush the pandemic, he just gave up.” Things are so fast, furious, and contradictory that I’ve switched my metaphor from Wimbledon singles, now I see which proceed at a relatively sedate, matronly pace, to championship table tennis a.k.a. ping pong, which is so fast that sometimes, the bouncing ball disappears. “[T]he public is also wrestling with a barrage of conflicting messages.”

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