Schools Are Dropping Mask Requirements, But A New CDC Study Suggests They Shouldn't

[appalachiablue]

Source: NPR

New research released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reinforces an old message: COVID-19 spreads less in schools where teachers and staff wear masks. Yet the study arrives as states and school districts across the country have begun scaling back or simply dropping their masking requirements for staff and students alike.

With the majority of school-age children still too young to qualify for vaccination, Friday's research is the latest salvo in a simmering fight between public health officials and politicians -- with parents lining up on both sides. The new study comes from Georgia and compares COVID-19 infection rates across 169 K-5 schools. Some schools required teachers, staff and sometimes students to wear masks; some did not.

Between Nov. 16 and Dec. 11, researchers found that infection rates were 37% lower in schools where teachers and staff members were required to wear masks. The difference between schools that did and did not require students to wear masks was not statistically significant.

This is one more study showing that masking, among other mitigation efforts, "can reduce infections and ultimately save lives," said Dr. Sean O'Leary, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado and vice chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics...

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/05/21/999106426/schools-are-dropping-mask-requirements-but-new-cdc-study-suggests-they-shouldnt

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'Fauci: Unvaccinated kids must wear masks in school this fall,' Axios, 5/15/21.
https://www.axios.com/fauci-unvaccinated-kids-wear-masks-school-b80f6374-235d-482c-90cb-01e68679f4ff.html

[dsc]

1. there is no way on earth that our schools in NC will require masks

in the fall. I doubt we still would be had the new mask guidance from the CDC come out in mid April instead of mid May. We have so little time left this year that changing now would be more trouble than it is worth, but by fall the mask mandate will be gone, completely gone.

[FBaggins]

2. No. It doesn't

Mid-November to mid-December was prior to any of those teachers/staff being able to get vaccinated.

There's no data cited here indicating that a vaccinated teacher is significantly less likely to spread the virus if he or she wears a mask.

[FBaggins]

5. The reported study doesn't support that either

"The difference between schools that did and did not require students to wear masks was not statistically significant."

[paleotn]

7. Because kids are kids.

Particularly 12 and under. No matter who's kids, they don't wear the mask right all the time, they take it off, they play closely together, they rub their eyes, pick their noses, and on and on. But apparently masks do protect teachers and staff.

[paleotn]

6. Are all teachers and staff now vaccinated?

Otherwise, the study is still valid, since kids under 12 still can't be vaccinated. As always, kids are the perfect vectors for circulating and spreading infectious disease. Kids just being kids. Until everyone can be vaccinated, there are still reservoirs for the virus to circulate and the problem remains.

[FBaggins]

10. They can be... and the vast majority probably are

As always, kids are the perfect vectors for circulating and spreading infectious disease.

Not "as always". In fact, the data for COVID suggests that isn't the case.

Schools could certainly require that teachers either be vaccinated or wear a mask. There's little rationale at this point to require all staff to mask up.

[paleotn]

11. One doesn't have to show symptoms to still carry and transmit the virus.

Children are just far less susceptible to symptoms, not infection. Big difference. Since there's no evidence that children under 12 are any more or less susceptible to infection, that makes them an even more perfect vector.

You sure most teachers and staff are vaccinated? Even in places like TN and MS where vaccination rates are ridiculously low? Since children show mostly zero symptoms, for all practical purposes they become a natural reservoir where the virus can exist and replicate while causing very minimal damage. Well, until an unvaccinated teacher or staff member comes in contact and then spreads it to other unvaccinated adults and we're back to square one.

[FBaggins]

26. Your concerns are many months out of date

Children are just far less susceptible to symptoms, not infection. Big difference.

That isn't what the data has said. Not in this study, and not overall. Children are both less likely to be infected, less likely to pass it on to others, and less likely to have significant symptoms when they do catch it.

There is also no risk of getting "back to square one" now that vaccines are readily available.

The study discussed here was done during a time when infections/deaths were many times as high as they are now, and the schools that did not require students to mask did not result in statistically significant increases in infections over those that did.

Unvaccinated teachers can still wear masks if they're worried about getting sick, but there is no rationale to require those who have been vaccinated to still mask up.

Even in places like TN and MS where vaccination rates are ridiculously low?

I don't know what the vaccination rate is in TN/MS compared to other states... but the infection rate in TN has fallen from a peak of 10,000/day to about 350 and deaths from around 150/day to single digits. That's better than the nation as a whole... so I presume whatever level of vaccination they've got is pretty effective. Or perhaps their combined vaccinated/immune rate is higher.

[IronLionZion]

9. People have been running for school board on anti-mask platforms

no other issues, just resisting masks and any other COVID guidance like social distance in sports and vaccines.

[paleotn]

12. I'm firmly convinced that we are not an intelligent species.

Good with tools of various sorts, but intelligent? Not so much.

[SoCalDavidS]

13. This!

We really should be wiped off the planet.

Covid tried, but was not nearly effective enough. Perhaps the next virus to come along will more resemble "Captain Trips."

[paleotn]

24. I wouldn't go that far.

There is good in us. I'm just saying we're not really all that intelligent. Vulcans. Now those guys are intelligent.

[SoCalDavidS]

28. I Absolutely Would Go That Far

Now I'm not saying that ALL humans are horrible. Just a fairly large # of them are.

We don't care about Global Warming/Climate Change. We don't care about protecting endangered species. Here in America, some of the same people who profess that life is sacred, ESPECIALLY the unborn, couldn't care less if a gun causes the deaths of 21 children and 6 adults, or 61 concertgoers. Or can't take the step of WEARING A FUCKING MASK, or GETTING A VACCINATION, in order to protect themselves and others from a virus that's taken the lives of 3.5 Million Worldwide in 15 months.

Every generation is less intelligent than the one that proceeded it. I see signs of this on a daily basis. Here in America, our education system is becoming shit.

And then we have the supposedly "intelligent" politicians, who LIE LIE LIE and act like their degrees and success are proof that the Bullshit they're spewing has some basis in fact.

[appalachiablue]

21. +1

[BlueIdaho]

14. Local schools in north Idaho

Have mostly gone back to mask requirements as infection rates shot up after cancelling mask requirements. It’s two steps forward three steps back in Idaho.

[appalachiablue]

22. Glad to know that, maybe they'll

get it like others before we all perish.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

16. Ohio still requires them in schools, but...

... I won't be surprised if that changes later, with so many Republicans in our legislature.

They might even try to copy states like Utah and pass bills that make any such mandate illegal!

It's like they want people to die unless they're a fetus.

[Salviati]

17. I understood what the CDC guidelines were saying...

... but if they did not understand how the general public would take their announcement, then they need to hire some better people in their public relations department ASAP, because it was obvious from the jump that any statement that begins with "You no longer need to wear masks if..." would be entirely ignored after the if.

I understand the CDC desire to relay good news and to show measurable and appreciable progress in fighting the pandemic, but a much, much better statement IMO would have been to withdraw guidance for wearing masks for vaccinated people in private gatherings, and to explicitly recommend continuing mask mandates for public locations, until certain state/local benchmarks for vaccination are met.

The message that they sent was a really big mistake as far as public health is concerned. With any luck, it may not end up biting us in the ass too much, and I sincerely hope it doesn't, but even if we don't suffer any ill effects, that doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake.

[JudyM]

19. +1. Major unforced error.

[MiniMe]

18. Has anybody here gotten a cold or the flu this year?

I may never stop wearing masks just because of that. Masks and hand washing seem to be eliminating colds and the flu. If it works for those, it works to stop Covid

[Evolve Dammit]

25. Helpful with the incredible pollen this year as well. Common in China for industrial pollution too

[Blasphemer]

27. I have not. But, I also haven't gone anywhere.

Now that I am fully vaxxed, it'll be interesting to see what happens if I go back to my usual amount of socializing but with mask wearing. I'd love to be cold and flu-free.

[Steelrolled]

20. Poor reporting by the CDC

They never mention in the summary that this study was done before vaccines were available. They do mention it lower down in the article. This is what I have come to expect from the CDC - I guess they are better suited for longer term studies.