> This is exactly the dichotomy many teachers unions forced, as they demanded not more safety measures for in-person schooling, but school closures and remote learning.

Not in my experience, no. We've asked for all measures of all kinds, and have been met with blanket "no's" in many places.

> This is entirely speculation, while you demand extreme rigor from me when I suggest a causative link behind the surge in drug overdose deaths in 2020 and the lockdown policies that massively exacerbated social isolation.

I had specific people in mind when I wrote that sentence. And I'm not demanding extreme rigor, I just want to see the causative link. Still yet to see it.

> The teacher's unions' behavior was completely inexcusable and they were clearly not advocating for children.

First of all, the initial round of school closings was not at the behest of teacher's unions, it was an almost coordinated movement across the entire country and in many industries. Very hard to put school closings at the feet of teachers unions. Secondly, teachers unions advocate for teachers, not children. Children have their own advocates in teachers themselves, who in fact advocated the strongest for children during this time. Very strange this effort to paint teachers as somehow anti-children when they literally devote their lives to kids at great personal cost to themselves.