Our country is not prepared to lift public health mitigation strategies that have kept us safe. I write this, even as some states are prematurely easing restrictions. The serious ramifications of the slowness and disorganization of the Federal Government’s response to this pandemic will be felt for years to come. We are about to proceed, even without proper guidelines, to re-open our country. If history is a window to our present, the second wave of this virus which could hit in the fall, as we return to school, could be much worse.
The denial of the existence of this virus in the early parts of January and February have silenced the experts from the CDC. There is a continued refusal from the White House to embrace science. The most recent version of guidelines from the CDC is completely blocked and a watered-down decision-making tree gives no specifics. It is a juvenile, oversimplified document for the most consequential public health crisis of our lifetime. We are living through the ‘death of expertise.’ Where is the real CDC?
Published by Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN
Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN, is a Nationally Certified School Nurse (NCSN), currently in her 22nd year as a New Jersey school nurse in the Camden City School District. Robin is the Director for New Jersey to the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) Board. She is proud to be a Johnson & Johnson School Health Leadership Fellow and past Program Mentor. Robin is the honored recipient of multiple awards for her work in school nursing and population health. These awards include, 2019 and 2020 National Association of School Nurses President’s Award, 2018 NCSN School Nurse of the Year, 2017 Johnson & Johnson School Nurse of the Year, and the New Jersey Department of Health 2017 Population Health Hero Award. Robin serves as faculty in the School Nurse Certificate Program at Rutgers University-Camden School of Nursing, where she teaches the next generation of school nurses. She was presented the 2018 Rutgers University – Camden Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award for Part-time Faculty. Robin writes a weekly blog called The Relentless School Nurse. She also writes a monthly column in My American Nurse, the official journal of the American Nurses Association. Robin’s work is included as a case study in The Future of Nursing Report 2020-2030. You can follow Robin on Twitter at @RobinCogan.
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