Aaron Kheriaty: Will COVID Restrictions Persist Indefinitely in Schools?

Aaron Kheriaty, author of The New Abnormal, examines the persistent COVID mandates for K-12 schools, college campuses, and health care settings.

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Aaron Kheriaty: Will COVID Restrictions Persist Indefinitely in Schools?

This is an audio version of The Reason Livestream, which takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Reason's YouTube channel.

It's back-to-school season, and for some parts of the country, that means dealing with COVID restrictions again. Americans are no longer experiencing indefinite school closures or ubiquitous masking, but intermittent school closures, temporary mask mandates, and COVID vaccine requirements persist.

Will it ever end? Or are we in "the new abnormal"?

To examine these questions, Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe spoke with Aaron Kheriaty, the psychiatrist fired from the University of California, Irvine for refusing to get vaccinated. He's a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center who wrote a book called The New Abnormal: The Rise of the Biomedical Security State, in which he argues that the authoritarian measures implemented during the pandemic are sure to linger and reshape American society for the worse absent concerted and organized political pushback. 

Zach and Liz discussed his firing at length, surveyed the landscape of remaining COVID restrictions across America, reacted to clips of both Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom reflecting on their governance through the emergency, and talked about policies that can best help us escape "the new abnormal."

Sources referenced in this conversation:

ABC News: "School districts in Kentucky, Texas cancel classes amid 'surge' of illnesses including COVID"

Bloomberg: "Covid Mask Mandate at Elementary School Draws Ire of Some Republicans"

Reason: "The University of Michigan Will Force Students With COVID To Leave Campus"

Cochrane Library: "Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses."

American College Health Association report on campus vaccine mandates and COVID policies

Reason: "A Federal Judge Blocks California's Ban on Medical Advice That Promotes COVID-19 'Misinformation'"

Aaron Kheriaty in The Wall Street Journal: "University Vaccine Mandates Violate Medical Ethics"

Aaron Kheriaty's lawsuit against the University of California, Irvine

5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Missouri v. Biden

Comments

[Minadin]

At my nieces' private school, the policy since last year is that if a kid at the school comes down with covid, they keep the kid out of class until they test negative (about a week, typ) and send the other kids in that class (only) home with a note to let the other parents know.

And they keep on just having class like normal.

[Zeb]

Pretty good. But they should stop encouraging testing and just say to stay home if sick and come back when you feel better.

[Dillinger]

what is this, 1983?

[Overt]

And this is why zero children at my kids' schools test, even when they are sure they have the Wu Flu.

[AngelaBHill]

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[I, Woodchipper]

lol who puts their kids in public school if they can help it? unbelievable.

[Don't look at me!]

Will COVID Restrictions Persist Indefinitely In Schools?

As long as there is a teacher’s union, yes.

[jimc5499]

Beat me to it.

[Eeyore]

Eliminate public everything.

[Liberty Lover]

No they will only last until the last child is brainwashed, indoctrinated, and has changed their sex. Then they can end .
No kids, no schools needed.

[Overt]

No, no no. According to JFear, California is the only place this is happening. Those stories out of Michigan, Kentucky, Texas and Maryland don't actually exist.

[StevenF]

CONTROL will persist until those controlled REFUSE to be controlled.
"Covid restrictions" are about control.

[MWAocdoc]

For the record, we have been in the "new abnormal" for several generations now! This is just the latest mess overbearing government officials have created and added to that we can point to. There is no problem you can cite that government officials cannot exacerbate. At various times in the history of human society we can also cite humans fed up with the authorities rising up against them, usually with catastrophic results. More often fed-up humans turn on each other with even worse consequences. I am not optimistic that this will turn out any better than past ones.

[Bryce]

I have no doubt COVID measures will soon be back again nationwide and for a good reason: It's a dangerous disease and more dangerous variants can emerge again any time.
What I, as a Dutchman, living in the Netherlands cannot understand: 1. How could such an extremely left politician like Biden ever rise to power, and 2) How could he mandate Americans to get vaccinated? It is beyond my comprehension that this could ever happen in the USA where personal freedom is so important, and rightly so.

[Terran]

"I have no doubt COVID measures will soon be back again nationwide and for a good reason: It’s a dangerous disease and more dangerous variants can emerge again any time."

Stop giving me the big sad.

[CE]

Who would send their kid to a school these days, for any reason?

[Vernon Depner]

We have compulsory education laws, and not all parents have the resources to make alternatives work.

[NOYB2]

Yes.

Next.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

There appears to be no disaffected malcontent, delusional misfit, or bigoted culture war casualty to whom this site will not provide a platform.

Carry on, clingers.

[Sevo]

Fuck off and die, asshole bigot.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Continue to get stomped by your betters . . . until replacement, clinger.

[Sevo]

Fuck off and die, asshole bigot.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Open wider, loser.

Or not. Your comfort is no longer a concern among your betters, for victory is theirs.

[sahil]

I really enjoyed reading this blog post! The topic is so relevant to my current situation,
and the information provided was incredibly helpful. I've been struggling with
for a while now, and your post has given me
some valuable insights
and practical tips to tackle it.
I especially appreciated the clear and concise writing style. It made the complex concepts easy to understand,
even for someone like me who doesn't have a background
The real-life examples you included also added a lot of value to the content.
I'd love to see more posts like this in the future. Keep up the great work, and thanks for sharing your knowledge!

[dclarue]

Reason sure likes propping up the anti-LGBT nutballs these days. First it was Jennifer Morse, now it is Kheriaty, who worked for Robert Oscar Lopez's sham International Children's Rights Institute, a fake "children's rights" group set up to harass and demean gay parents and their children. So here we have a supposed PSYCHIATRIST, Kheriaty, who not only worked for a weirdo like Robert Oscar Lopez, it was for his group that harassed children.