Its own pandemic: Bullies over others

In the sweltering heat of late afternoon, I walked up to a grassy patch in front of the Central Bucks School District Administrative Building, for a July 27 press conference representing concerned medical professionals and parents in the district, in anticipation of the school board’s vote on the Health and Safety Plan.
At the last minute, after checking my phone, I crossed out “34” and replaced it with “36” (an average of 36 COVID-19 cases per day, which represents a continued upward trend in Bucks County”). As repeatedly stated by local public health officials, “data drives decisions.”
In fact, we had created a toolkit of facts and figures, along with the hand drawn signs by the high school students in attendance. We were confidently well-prepared for difficult questions, but laughably ill-prepared for the ensuing chaos and vitriol.
From the very first, we were outnumbered. Within seconds of Dr. Miriam Mahmud’s opening, the speakers at the podium were circled by people holding their own “no mandatory masks” signs over us.
Since that revolting display of violent rhetoric hurled at us, refrains of “our community is divided” and “parents are on two sides” have echoed through news and social media.
There are no “two sides” to this.
We all want our children to return to school safely and in-person. The disagreement was with the contents of the Health and Safety Plan, a six-page document where the only mitigation strategy against COVID-19 was trying to maintain three feet of distance between children, with a Post-it to review it as a monthly agenda item.
There was no mechanism for disease reporting or contact tracing, there were no triggers for changes. At every doctor’s visit, patients are given a discharge plan for followup … please return if … please be concerned if … things are better if …. Asking for metrics and mitigation measures based on AAP, CDC, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health guidelines is reasonable.
The deep horror was reserved for the following – while live-streaming their entirely self-proclaimed victimhood and oppression, members of groups like Reopen Bucks, Parents Have the Right to Know, and perhaps others, screamed obscenities at three pediatric health professionals and a high school student.

We were called among many other things: murderer, Hitler and illegal aliens (three of us were women of color). We were told to “die.” A woman ran toward me with an outstretched arm and was blocked by a nearby friend. So emboldened was this crowd that they acted in this manner, in public and in full view of cameras.
WHYY’s Emily Rizzo reported, “One crowd member, a white woman, swiped at Kevin Leven, who is Black, while he was holding a microphone for one of the pediatricians speaking, Dr. Anushka Viswanatthan. As Viswanathan spoke, the woman yelled, ‘murderer!’”
Our student speaker asked for decorum. She was met with even louder jeers. While sharing how her family members in India died of COVID, voices in the crowd shouted that they “don’t give a shit.”
The first amendment protects your right to free speech. But it does not make you more right, more ethical, or more kind.
On one hand, three pediatric medical professionals and one student spoke eloquently and rationally about facts, guidelines, and personal experiences. On the other hand, grown adults belonging to ironically named groups claiming to “protect kids,” tried to intimidate a child for exercising her first amendment right to free speech.
We now have a vaccine against COVID-19. Bringing those groups’ hateful rhetoric and actions to light is the only inoculation we have against bullying.
There are no “two sides” to this.

Dr. Anusha Viswanathan is a pediatric infectious disease specialist, parent, and resident of Central Bucks.

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