Chap Petersen's Focus on COVID

I submitted the following letter to the editor of the Fairfax Independent newspaper, who declined to publish it.

This is in response to the March 2025 piece by Chap Petersen (Fairfax Independent owner and publisher) titled “Four Years Ago” and a subsequent mass email from Mr. Petersen “When Will We Apologize for the Shutdowns”. Mr. Petersen asserts “there is not a shred of evidence that these unconstitutional actions (school, business and church closures) saved a single life” and that (they) “very likely caused thousands of unnecessary deaths as Virginians stopped visiting their doctors, stopped checking in on relatives and radically increased their use of illegal narcotics.” Mr. Petersen cites no sources for these astonishing claims. To date 23,666 Virginians have died of COVID (Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center) and overall, 1,224,353 Americans have died of COVID (CDC). It is estimated that masking, social distancing and vaccines prevented approximately 800,000 COVID deaths in the United States (Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Spring 2024). I can find no evidence that COVID restrictions caused any significant number of unnecessary deaths in Virginia, much less “thousands”.

It is true that school closings appear to have had a minimal effect in preventing COVID deaths (U.S. State Restrictions and Excess COVID-19 Pandemic Deaths: JAMA Health Forum, July 26, 2024). However, that surprising finding was unknown through much of 2020 and 2021. It remains mysterious to this day why the coronavirus, which spreads easily in crowded settings, failed to spread in large numbers among students in classrooms and then home to parents and other vulnerable family members. Certainly in 20220 and 2021 it would have been difficult to find any group of 30 adults willing to spend six hours within three feet of each other. Is it any wonder that public health officials advised against such crowding? It is deeply regrettable that many students’ learning, especially those with special needs, suffered as a result of school closures. But at the time widespread death was considered a possible or even likely consequence of operating schools as usual.

During COVID I was the Director of Youth and Family Services for the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, from which I am now retired. Entering COVID our primary forms of treatment were (and are) individual, family and group therapy, all of which involve multiple people spending up to an hour together in a small room. With COVID we quickly moved to providing therapy through virtual video platforms. It was effective for many children, youth and families, and ineffective for others. Mr. Petersen would assert that I should have ordered my staff into those rooms, unmasked no less. Unlike Mr. Petersen, I had the lives of real people in my hands. With full awareness that some children suffered as a result, I do not regret discontinuing in-person services.

Our nation was in effect engaged in a war against the coronavirus. It is probable that more Americans have died of COVID than in all wars combined (U.S Department of Veterans Affairs). In war leaders must respond quickly in the face of incomplete information. Mistakes are made. World War II decisions, such as the use of the atomic bomb, are still being debated. It is crucial that we learn from our war with COVID what worked, what didn’t, and how we can best prepare for the next public health crisis. Mr. Petersen’s demonizing of elected officials, public health professionals and educators promotes defensiveness and dissention, not learning. Let’s put aside our conflicts and emerge stronger and better prepared.