Open up: Could keeping schools and sports open for kids be as easy as signing a waiver?

How long are we willing to let COVID-19 and its “what ifs” keep the United States and its businesses and schools held hostage: Either shut down, locked down, operating at reduced capacity, or limping along on one leg?

Until it's too late?

Until there is a “Phase 5” vaccine, per Gov. J.B. Pritzker?

We probably shouldn't hold our breath for a vaccine or a cure. Because most viruses don't have a cure.

Scientists have been feverishly trying to find a cure for HIV for more than 35 years.

They are still trying.

I don't want to be living in this alternate universe for the next 35 years or more. Do you?

What kind of country will we have left?

I want to still have a job, a place to live and food in my refrigerator.

I want my kids to be able to get educated, and move on with their lives into jobs of their own.

Keeping the country humming and prospering is darn near impossible when it is so constrained. Jobs are being lost, livelihoods are being destroyed, academic gains by our kids are fading away. How much loss is enough?

The country needs to be opened, and it needs to stay open.

And that goes for our schools, too.

Our schools need to provide classes and instruction and sports and activities. All with precautions, of course. (Masks, social distancing, sanitization protocol, etc.)

Kids need school, they need the education, they need the socialization and the physical and mental benefits that school classes and sports and activities can provide.

And yet, here we are at an impasse again. COVID-19 cases have gone up in the U.S. in the last few weeks. And many people, including school administrators, are panicking. Again.

Many experts will tell you that cases are up because testing has increased significantly, but that deaths are down because the virus is being treated better and because younger people who are now testing positive for COVID-19 are recovering from it.

But the simple fact that the positive cases are increasing is bringing back worries and hysteria and doomsday projections.

And so, we recoil. Again.

My daughter's high school, which did have a re-open plan, announced recently it is going to fully remote learning until at least Oct. 2. Welcome to your senior year, sweetheart.

Other area high schools are rolling out fully remote plans for the entire first semester, essentially through the Christmas break.

On Wednesday, the Illinois High School Association will decide the fate of fall high school athletics, and most people close to the situation don't have a good feeling about it.

High school sports for the fall and quite possibly beyond will likely be significantly delayed or canceled. And yet, most of us have heard the numbers about teenagers, and the under-25 age group.

The COVID-19 mortality rate, according to the American Council on Science and Health, for people ages 15 through 24 is 0.121 percent. The mortality rate for people ages 5 through 14 is 0.013 percent.

Each year, thousands of kids in our school systems get knocked on their backs by the common flu.

The flu is no joke.

In fact, 500,000 people die worldwide each year due to influenza, including up to 61,000 in the U.S. during a typical flu season.

But we don't shut down schools because of the flu. Why? Because kids in that age range aren't at great risk of dying from the flu. They recover.

Just like kids in that age range aren't at great risk of dying from COVID-19. They recover.

So why is COVID-19 being handled so differently? Are there political motivations involved? Fears of litigation? Fear for fear's sake?

I feel for school districts and the administrators who are having to make all of these tough decisions. Many must believe they are in a no-win situation, and that is scary to them. And so, they err on the side of caution, and in some cases an overabundance of caution.

You know what really scares me?

Kids sitting in their basements during another lockdown playing hours and hours and hours of video games, or posting endlessly on social media. Kids getting depressed because they can't see their friends or leave their houses. Kids gaining weight and losing their motivation for physical fitness because it's hard to work out and play from home. Kids falling behind in their overall academic knowledge because they are missing crucial in-person instruction, to the point that they will be ill-prepared for college and the job market.

It also scares me to think of parents struggling to keep their jobs and their households running while having to also care for their children and monitor their children in remote learning scenarios.

This decision to shut down or delay the opening of schools and sports and businesses has ripple effects that reach beyond the medical effects of the virus itself. We are impacting people's mental and psychological and physical and financial health with each and every decision we make regarding COVID-19.

Repeat: Kids are low risk. Yes, there are kids who are around, and some live with, people who are high risk.

But here's an idea: Let's put these decisions about what kind of COVID-19 risk is tolerable to the individual. If parents want their kids to go to school, they sign a waiver giving their full permission and waiving their right to sue the school in the event their child contracts COVID-19.

Parents who think there is too much risk can keep their kids home and take advantage of remote learning. If teachers are afraid to teach due to age or underlying health conditions that put them at greater risk for COVID-19, they get first priority to teach the remote classes that will have to exist for those kids whose parents don't sign waivers.

Same goes for sports. Want to play? Sign a waiver. Too worried about the risk? Then don't sign, and don't play.

Could it be as simple as that? Waivers?

I think it could be. I think it might have to be.

The chances of a COVID-19 vaccine or cure-all happening in the near future, or even our lifetime, is probably remote. I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it.

So, we've got to be nimble as a country. We have to adjust, and keep going. We have to keep living. And not just within the confines of the four walls of our homes.