> "how many kids should we let die so that the rest can play with chemistry sets?" I think it's an important point to note that the vocally asking of that ques

> "how many kids should we let die so that the rest can play with chemistry sets?" I think it's an important point to note that the vocally asking of that question of course signals the end of the activity. It's basically a rhetorical tool when one side of a trade-off decision is easily measurable and photographable and the other is a lost opportunity (generations of chemists). You can't photograph a lost opportunity. I'd argue the school mask debate is a similar one. It's easy to interview the teacher who almost died from Covid or grandma with little ones in school who is scared. It's impossible to photograph a generation of kids' developmental gaps. The shift in the 60s and 70s wasn't so much a shift to societal thinking, it was a shift to media-driven public opinion.