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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Kids Don’t Need Masks!!!

Kids Don’t Need Masks!!!

by | 102 Comments

This post is in: 

This is the age breakdown of cases in Monroe County, NY yesterday, which has a school mask mandate for districts that have in-person classes. Here’s Saturday (total of 102 new cases):

Since there’s no danger of kids contracting COVID, it’s obviously a good thing that Iowa and Texas have banned school mask mandates, and other red states are looking to follow.

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  1. 1.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Is there some reason the second table is truncated (only first 4 rows visible)?

    (Foist?)

    So roughly 1/3 of new cases (60/183) are among those under 20. Well heck, sure looks like kids don’t need no steenkin’ masks, duzzit? //

  2. 2.

    Roger Moore

    We shut down schools a year ago and have done everything we can to protect kids from being exposed to COVID. Because of this, very few children got COVID. Now people interpret this to mean kids are naturally resistant. You see this same line of thinking again and again with people who hate regulations. They take the success of regulations as proof the thing the regulations are protecting against isn’t a problem, and thus that we can eliminate them.

  3. 3.

    Roger Moore

    @Uncle Cosmo: ​
     
    I assume the table was truncated because he wanted to save space, and those lines were what he wanted to highlight: more than 1/3 of new cases were among people under the age of 20.

  5. 5.

    Tractarian

    We’re living in a time of rampant misinformation, intentional disinformation, phony pseudoscience, and Facebook frauds.

    Might I suggest that it’s not the ideal situation for the employment of dry sarcasm?

    What I’m saying is, it’s really hard to tell if you’re being serious.

  7. 7.

    Howard Campbell

    Even if it’s sarcastic, it’s still misleading. A lot of people just browse the headlines.

    If you pretend to be an anti-masker on the internet, you might as well be an anti-masker.

  9. 9.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Roger Moore: ​…[M]ore than 1/3 of new cases were among people under the age of 20.

    Umm, not quite: 25 of 82 plus 35 of 101 is 60 of 183, or 32.8%. But close enough for public health concern.

    ETA: What’s especially galling about this idiocy is that every freakin’ parent knows that for good old garden variety flu, schools are Petri dishes and a huge source of spreading. Looks like these nitwits completely forgot about that, since there was no “flu season” last winter…

  10. 10.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore:

    You see this same line of thinking again and again with people who hate regulations. They take the success of regulations as proof the thing the regulations are protecting against isn’t a problem, and thus that we can eliminate them.

    Magical circular reasoning.

  11. 11.

    Geeno

    I hate to say it, but the past few years leave me not really caring if their kids die.

  13. 13.

    Tractarian

    @Howard Campbell:

    This!

    I wonder if sarcasm will even survive the decade?

    Sarcasm requires a shared conception of what is feasible and sensible. That doesn’t exist on the internet. Think about it: is there anything one can possibly say in jest that could not be said earnestly by some online wingnut?

  15. 15.

    geg6

    And people wonder why I still wear a mask.

    It’s been driving me crazy, wondering what the hell my university’s administration is thinking in not mandating vaccines. And then I remembered that the state budget isn’t set until June 30 and the GQP controls the legislature and, thus, a chunk of our budget. A budget that has taken a big hit over the last 15-16 months, what with losses on tuition and housing/food and massive investments in technology needs and financial aid. They don’t want to make a decision before that budget is set or they don’t want to do it at all for fear of the legislature.

    I fucking hate these people.

  16. 16.

    RSA

    @Roger Moore: Because of this, very few children got COVID. Now people interpret this to mean kids are naturally resistant. You see this same line of thinking again and again with people who hate regulations. They take the success of regulations as proof the thing the regulations are protecting against isn’t a problem, and thus that we can eliminate them.

    I remember people telling me last summer that COVID wasn’t really serious, because look how few people were dying of it—entirely neglecting the shutdowns, distancing, masking, etc. It was amazing.

  17. 17.

    Fair Economist

    Plus the new B1.617.2 variant hits kids harder.

    I had a boardgame get together this weekend for the first time in 11 months. Vaccination required, of course. One of the regulars had caught it, and it gave her COPD. She can’t dance or hike anymore. It’s so irresponsible to risk *children* getting that kind of problem.

  18. 18.

    Cameron

    I don’t know what they’re doing about kids’ masks here in FL, but I’m sure it will be every bit as screwed up as IA and TX.  DeSantis is certainly making his mark: got a call from a friend in Denmark, SC (which is hardly a teeming metropolis) who told me she’s seen all kinds of stuff on the teevee about how wingnuts love him.  Don’t know where she’s seen it, since she’s a lib and doesn’t waste her time watching Fox or any of that other shit.

  19. 19.

    Tractarian

    @Geeno:

    I hate to say it, but the past few years leave me not really caring if their kids die.

    Huh? You’re indifferent to the death of whose kids, exactly? I mean, I know the pandemic has been hard on people, but sheesh.

  21. 21.

    geg6

    @Geeno:

    I hate to wish it on innocent children.  MAGATs themselves can go DIAF, but not wishing ill on their children.  That’s why I’m a liberal, I guess.

  23. 23.

    Tractarian

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    I’m with you.

    Oh, great, another one who’s apparently indifferent to the death of my children.

    All because I have the audacity to live in a state where Democrats are outnumbered by a few percentage points?

  24. 24.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Tractarian:

    My wife and daughter have had to battle maskholes daily at their retail jobs. I have to hear about the maskholes that come in and shit on everyone, every day they work. The fucking snowflakes are rude, condescending and just plain ugly about this to people who didn’t make the rules but are only asking the public to follow them.

    Fuck. Them. All.

  25. 25.

    Nelle

    All four adults in our household are vaccinated.  The 2 and 3 year olds cannot be.  Now they’ve taken the mask requirement off of daycares.  What I read is that asymptomatic cases in children can still result in cardiac damage.  We moved to Iowa two years ago ( to be near grandchildren) but I was under the impression Iowa wasn’t so fervently Repuke.

  26. 26.

    bluefoot

    I know a 10 year old athlete who got a very mild case of COVID last year. Mild cold-like symptoms for a couple of days, positive PCR test. Still needed a cardiac workup and an MRI before they could go back to practice. Minimal outward symptoms does not mean no long-term effects from getting COVID.

    Anyone who thinks kids shouldn’t wear a masks has never had a kid in school or day care. The petri dish cliche exists for a reason.

  27. 27.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Tractarian:

    I take it you are having your kids mask and other safe practices, right? Like us, that’s all you can do when you are surrounded by maskholes that deny science. Complain about what I said all you want, it won’t change anything they are doing.

    Of course I want sane people to be safe. But my wishing ill on those who want to spread illness isn’t making the sane less safe, is it?

  28. 28.

    Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix

    Yes I cut the second graphic to just show kids to save space, and yes the title of the post is sarcastic, as is the last sentence.

  29. 29.

    burnspbesq

    @RSA:

    I remember people telling me last summer that COVID wasn’t really serious, because look how few people were dying of It.

    ‘Yeah, I guess a million is nothing, really.

  31. 31.

    Brachiator

    @Geeno:

    I hate to say it, but the past few years leave me not really caring if their kids die.

    You can’t separate the worthy from the unworthy when it comes to the pandemic.  The previous administration tried to do that with its pandemic response, and we ended up with 590,000 deaths in the US.

  33. 33.

    James E Powell

    @Cameron:

    From what I’m seeing & hearing, he’s the embodiment of Cleek’s Law. Every Republican now follows the Trump strategy: if he can get liberals to hate him, the right wingers will love him.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    So dumb. The masks were the easiest part of the pandemic and kids aren’t insane grievance-monsters with giant chips on their shoulders so they took to them easily.

    The “anti-mask protests” at schools are 100% Trumpsters, too. I know we all have to pretend this is some grass roots uprising but it’s more fucking astroturf.

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    @Tractarian:

    Oh, great, another one who’s apparently indifferent to the death of my children.

    All because I have the audacity to live in a state where Democrats are outnumbered by a few percentage points?

    Your point is well taken.  I’m sure no one really wants children in red states to die, but it is still an awful thing to read.

    Children are so at the mercy of their parents, which is fine when the parents are taking good care of them, but awful when their parents are horrible human beings.

  38. 38.

    Lyrebird

    @WaterGirl: Yeah, I did read that title as righteously indignant sarcasm, and I do think it would help to put scare quotes or “and they say…” on the title to help.   Don’t want to give any support to the endangering people.

    PS to @Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:

      I grant you total rights to your indignation too! Argh!!!

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: It reads like the CDC have announced that kids don’t need masks.

    Most people do not read articles, or just read a sentence or two.  John has something like 13k followers on twitter.  What percentage do you think will assume that the CDC made another ruling that makes us less safe?

    Why the WTF?

  41. 41.

    Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix

    @WaterGirl:

    It reads like the CDC have announced that kids don’t need masks.  Why the WTF?

    It does in no way, shape or form say that.  “CDC” is not in the post anywhere.

  42. 42.

    jl

    Irresponsible for states to dictate what should be a local decision on whether masks are needed in any particular community. But what do state governments with ideological axes to grind care?

    Of course kids can get covid, and of course there is still uncertainty about the risk of long term consequences from asymptomatic and mild infections in people of any age.

    For long term public health control, the big open question is whether the rate of transmission between kids is high enough for sustained chains of transmission to exist in their group by itself. Can kids develop a little mini epidemic among themselves, or is the problem that they get covid from adults and then there are chains of cases from adults that die out among the kids. From what I’ve read, more and more evidence that it is the latter.

    But, hell, either way you have to worry about how many kids will get covid if they are in school, whether they’re spreading it among themselves or just absorbing what adults in the community are giving them. (latter can be fixed with more adults getting vaccine, former can’t until there is a kids’ vaccine)

    Which is why decision on whether kids need to  mask while in school, for both public health and personal health risks, depends on the overall rate of community transmission with is a local, not a state issue, since few big regional spatial waves of epidemics now, unlike in greater NY are early in the US epidemic.

    Anyway, good research that has stood up very well on how spread in schoolkids, parents lugging them around, community, and adult staff started coming out a year ago from  Australian public health depts. I don’t don’t understand why the simple fact that how schools should operate depends on the rate of community transmission hasn’t been more widely and clearly communicated.

    Good recent NBER study by epi/econ team on Texas schools, showing that with high community transmission, keeping schools open is tricky, can increase community transmission through more adult mixing, with degree of transmission among kids unclear. So have to be careful opening schools, do social distancing with high community  prevalence of active disease. Where lower community transmission is lower can be more flexible, and can try it without masks on kids. Can’t find it my ‘puter now but go to NBER site and look for papers over last couple of weeks.

    Anyway, good recent research on Texas itself that a statewide mandate is a very bad and dangerous idea.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: I guess we’ll have to disagree on that.  Even after reading the post I wasn’t sure, which is why I asked.  And I wasn’t the only one, but maybe we’re all just stupid.

  45. 45.

    Rusty

    Our youngest spent 6 days in the hospital last spring with the pediatric inflammatory syndrome.  Only idiots think this has no effect on children.  He turned 12  since then and has had his first dose of vaccine.  We really should be much more careful until all school age children can be vaccinated.

  46. 46.

    West of the Rockies

    @Tractarian:

    I am pretty sure OHM was spouting in anger and not genuinely wishing death on anyone’s children, but I’m a cock-eyed optimist.

    I really should an ophthalmologist about that…

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:

    The “anti-mask protests” at schools are 100% Trumpsters, too. I know we all have to pretend this is some grass roots uprising but it’s more fucking astroturf.

    I believe you.  The astroturfers should not be getting away with this so easily.  They have learned that if you set the narrative early, loudly and emotionally, it’s often difficult for the facts to catch up.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    Our public school is still requiring masks. I was there this afternoon, hundreds of kids wearing masks. and not a single whiny complaint.

    Maybe they could talk with their parents on how not to be big whiny crybabies who can’t handle the slightest adversity or even mild inconvenience without melting down.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    @James E Powell: Yep, that’s exactly what he’s up to. He’s betting that Florida will be redder in 2022 than 2020, and the odds are decent that’s how it will shake out. But I fervently hope it blows up in his face.

  51. 51.

    jl

    @WaterGirl: ” It reads like the CDC have announced that kids don’t need masks. ”

    I can’t find anything from CDC that’s a blanket statement masks aren’t needed in schools. Maybe confusion with guidance that vaccinated adults don’t need to worry about masks, but even that is not categorical, since spells out special situations where masks are still a good idea.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    As if becoming re-accustomed to being in an educational setting while wearing pants isn’t tough enough….

    //

  53. 53.

    Cameron

    @Betty Cracker: Did he ever get right with Norwegian Cruise Lines, or did Our Liberal Media just consign his no-vax-passport EO to the memory hole?

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    I heard a piece on NPR today about when TX ended its mask mandate and didn’t get a big surge as was predicted. Two interesting conclusions:

    1. People kept on doing what they were doing regardless of the government’s mandate. If they were wearing masks, they kept on wearing masks. If not, not.
    2. Epidemiologists were really worried the variant that originated in the UK that was more contagious would blow up here too, and it didn’t. They don’t know why.

    I liked it that they admit they don’t know why. There’s a lot we don’t understand about this virus, and it was refreshing to hear someone admit that.

  55. 55.

    catclub

    @Roger Moore: You see this same line of thinking again and again with people who hate regulations.

     

    The Roberts Court and the Voting Rights Act LEAP to mind.

  58. 58.

    jl

    @jl:

     

    School Reopenings, Mobility, and COVID-19 Spread: Evidence from Texas Charles J. Courtemanche, Anh H. Le, Aaron Yelowitz & Ron Zimmer

    https://www.nber.org/papers/w28753

    BTW, the paper has been overinterpreted as saying opening schools always increases community transmission. The authors repeatedly emphasize that the research is for areas with high prevalence of active cases. There have been very successful school reopenings with relaxed social distancing in areas with lower prevalence.

    So, bottom line is get the pop vaxxed asap, and get the damned epidemic behind us. Good chance that most cases among kids are due to dumbass adults (should give a Charlie Brown TV special clip here with the trombone grownups) giving it to them, not them spreading it among themselves.

  59. 59.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @West of the Rockies:

    Anger, frustration, whatever it is I am it. I don’t wish death on anyone’s kids but there’s not a damned thing I can do if they insist on endangering their lives, is there? I have reached the point that it has sunk in that there isn’t a damned thing I can do to stop stupid.

    So if they want to risk their kids lives and future health, then let them have at it. There’s nothing I can do to stop it. At least we’re vaccinated here at our house, so we’re relatively safe from the idiots.

  60. 60.

    sab

    @Kay: I stopped wearing a mask to walk outside on the metropark path until I got a blast of pollen so it’s back to masks outdoors for vaccinated me.

    Yeah, the kids don’t complain. We make them wear nice clothes instead of bathing suits or pajamas  to school. Adults are weird that way and kids take it all in stride.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    The masks just kill me because it’s such a minor inconvenience and even that they bitched incessantly about for a year. Some things are profound- miss school for a year, miss your family, don’t travel, don’t go out – but the mask? Easy. It’s so typical of these people that they couldn’t even tier the sacrifices properly.  They have bitched more about the masks than they have about anything else.

  62. 62.

    James E Powell

    @Betty Cracker:

    Is there an obvious reason why Florida is red and getting redder? It’s been old white people for many years. Were the Greatest Generation & Silent Generation less red than the boomers?

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @sab:

    A study released this month in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, led by researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, found that across 44 children’s hospitals, the number of pediatric patients hospitalized for respiratory illnesses is down 62%. Deaths have dropped dramatically too, compared with the last 10 years: The number of flu deaths among children is usually between 100 and 200 per year, but so far only one child has died from the disease in the U.S. during the 2020-2021 flu season.

  64. 64.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: That was probably the single most destructive thing Trump did: politicizing masks. If he hadn’t whined about it like a baby — had he shown some leadership on the issue or just STFU and let Fauci make recommendations — how many lives would have been saved?

  65. 65.

    jl

    @Betty Cracker: Some research on schools with relaxed social distancing and high community spread shows that the increases in cases among adults and kids from a careless school reopening can take awhile to show up.

    I forget when TX changed policy on masks, and wonder if there is enough time for any effect to show up.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @sab:

    God forbid any of these people ever have to wear safety glasses, or steel toed shoes, or a hardhat, or gloves.

    Schools are the workplaces of children. They wear the required safety equipment.

  68. 68.

    sab

    @Kay: I know someone in rural Ohio whose 7 year old granddaughter almost died of flu just before the pandemic. Rural or not, that family is still masked up.

  69. 69.

    jl

    Proportion of adult school staff vaccinated is a very important factor, at least for kids getting it and protection of staff. Since a lot of evidence that it is increased mixing among adults that comes with school reopenings, that is where prevalence of active (i.e., transmissible) cases among adults in community is a big factor.

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    @James E Powell: I don’t know, but there are two factors I’ve noticed that might have something to do with it: 1) the influx of wingnut Midwesterners into places like The Villages, which reinforced the existing bloc of cracker Dixiecrats-turned-Repubs outside the cities, and 2) the influx of immigrants from failed socialist states like Venezuela, some of whom are susceptible to lies and propaganda that falsely characterize Democrats as socialists via Spanish language outlets Republicans have long nurtured to hang onto the Cuban exile vote.

    Also, the state Democratic Party has been a basket case for decades.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I agree. You tell me your restaurant closed or you missed a year of school or you haven’t seen you elderly mother in months, I’m sympathetic. They lost me with the mask whining. Cry babies. Weak, coddled cry babies who we know we can’t count on for any kind of collective action that isn’t 100% about them and their needs.

    I had one tell me the other day “the vaccine hasn’t been tested”. Has the virus been tested? They think this virus is FDA approved? Talk about lab rats. They’re the lab rats. The thing freaking transforms.

  72. 72.

    leeleeFL

    @Cameron: You cannot avoid it it, is all over Google news and Facebook!  He is ending the extra unemployment benefits and making ppl see 5 employers a week to keep his crappy $275/week.  Because, of course they are lazy bums who won’t work unless he does this.

    I hate him, I hate the others like him.  I almost hate everyone.  It is exhausting!

  74. 74.

    Betty Cracker

    @jl: Good question. IIRC, TX ended their mask mandate in early March. The NPR thing I heard didn’t address kids or schools, at least not that I heard. Their point was nothing much changed as far as mask practices, but I don’t think they addressed schools specifically.

  75. 75.

    West of the Rockies

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    I hear you.  But stupid ain’t going away.  Some days I let my irritation lose and say exactly how much I despise the Trumpian hordes.  But as I age it seems more healthful to try to ignore that which I can’t change (remembering always to GOTV to remove the morons from power).

  76. 76.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: I think anti-mask-ism was a deliberate attempt to sow division–because a mask is a visible symbol on your face while you walk around in public; so easy to use it as a tribal marker. It’s like star-bellied Sneetches vs. plain-bellied Sneetches.

    I think Donald Trump understood that instinctively, which is why he immediately grabbed at the position on this that was opposite to what liberals would say.

  78. 78.

    New Deal democrat

    @James E Powell: Not a Floridian, but my understanding is that there has been a bigger migration from the redder Midwest than the bluer east coast.

    Also, the Greatest Generation always tended to vote blue. The reddest cohort of all is the late Boomers and early Gen Xers, who formed their political beliefs during Reagan’s presidency.

  79. 79.

    jl

    @Betty Cracker: May be hard to tell what is going on now with gradual open-ended vaccine uptake. More mixing that previously produced a noticeable surge, might now just result in a slower decline in cases that might be very difficult to detect.

    Anyway, sad and tragic how the US continues to muddle through what by now should be clear, IMHO. You want to reopen schools, do the following:

    Get adult staff vaxxed asap.

    Try to get a handle on amount of community transmission among adults.

    Look at what has worked in areas with similar rates of community transmission (plenty of real world examples been going on for months around US and the world).

    OK, then you know what is reasonable to try out.

    Edit: and try to persuade the state govt. to not impose some BS and stupid statewide mandate straightjacket on your town.

  82. 82.

    leeleeFL

    @James E Powell: Honestly, my generation, has been the issue, I think.  There are so many mid-boomers who loved Reagan and then embraced the insanity, I am not sure we can die off soon enough.  The split is nearly 50/50, and lots of the sane ones ain’t here in sunny Flori-DUH!

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    @jl:

    I can’t find anything from CDC that’s a blanket statement masks aren’t needed in schools. Maybe confusion with guidance that vaccinated adults don’t need to worry about masks, but even that is not categorical, since spells out special situations where masks are still a good idea.

    I thought that the CDC had amended its guidance to suggest that school children should still wear masks and observe social distancing.

    A CNN story noted:

    The new guidance says people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 may go without masks in most circumstances and don’t have to keep their distance from others. But everyone who is not vaccinated should continue wearing a mask as usual — and that means everyone under the age of 12, the only group not eligible now for any of the vaccines in use in the United States.

    Nuance upset the boneheads who want to declare that nobody nowhere nohow never needs to wear masks anymore.

  84. 84.

    jl

    @Brachiator:  ” I thought that the CDC had amended its guidance to suggest that school children should still wear masks and observe social distancing. ”

    The CDC has not been the best at communicating comprehensive plain language summaries of its guidance documents. So, I know from public health people I work with the all the ins and outs of the CDC recommendations is confusing, and big debate on how and when CDC should clarify and update its guidance both inside and outside the institution.

  85. 85.

    Cameron

    I don’t know if this is true everywhere in FL, but where I live there are workers running leaf blowers up and down the streets every day.  Naturally, air is full of dust, pollen, plant/animal residues, unidentified effluvia…I have COPD, so I’m thinking a lifetime of mask-wearing is in order, COVID or no.  Oddly enough, I don’t think my freedumb is being infringed on.

  86. 86.

    jl

    I forgot to note that, for example, Norway and Finland have kept primary schools open most of the time with flexible rules for masks on kids and staff, and done it through emergency lockdowns, surges, and whatnot. And they have kept covid under control much better than any other places in Europe or the US.

    Thing is, you need a comprehensive plan. In Norway, all the kids have good connections and equipment and devoted enough time time curriculum development for the kids to do work from home for a week of school shutdown and then come back without big disruption.

    If there is a rise in covid in the community , the sick and exposed can be IDd quickly and zipped into free or very cheap Q and I residential facilities for a week or ten days.

    Only a very very  few places in the US has ever had a comprehensive plan (e.g., HI, VT, some Native American govts.), and that makes everything hard.

    Norway and Finland have 1/10 the mortality and morbidity, and very  low excess mortality from all causes through the pandemic compared to the US. And at really zero extra damage to their economies. Their bigger spending on control has had a big ROI on $ and health.

  87. 87.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Cameron:

    Republicans have made a much more successful effort to gain the Hispanic-American vote.  I don’t know how.

    1. Propaganda (i.e. socialism)
    2. Jesus (i.e. they are coming for your religious liberty)
    3. Macho (i.e. liberal ‘assaults’ on traditional gender roles)
  88. 88.

    joel hanes

    @Nelle: ​
     
    I was under the impression Iowa wasn’t so fervently Repuke

    It didn’t used to be.

    Sent Harkin to the Senate for a long time.
    Had some relatively benign/sane Republicans, such as Gov Robert Ray and Rep. Jim Leach
    Had a tradition of good-goverment laws and a commitment to quality public education.

    All of those have been under attack for 20 years, but the dam really broke when the Rs got the trifecta in the IAS state government. They’re trying to turn the place into Arkansas as quickly as they can, if not Mississippi.

  90. 90.

    Ruckus

    I always assume snark when written by some of the authors here on BJ.

    It’s the safest interpretation.

    Also it’s right most often.

    OTOH, I’ve been known to use snark on occasion myself so I expect it and never assume that it isn’t the operative methodology used most often.

  91. 91.

    Scout211

    The CDC recently updated their guidance for schools. This is directly from the CDC site and not filtered through a newsroom intent on stirring bothsiderism. (bold added)

    https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/operation-strategy.html

    Key Points

    1. Evidence suggests that many K-12 schools that have strictly implemented prevention strategies have been able to safely open for in-person instruction and remain open.
    2. CDC’s K-12 operational strategy presents a pathway for schools to provide in-person instruction safely through consistent use of prevention strategies, including universal and correct use of masks and physical distancing.
    3. All schools should implement and layer prevention strategies and should prioritize universal and correct use of masks and physical distancing.
    4. Testing to identify individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination for teachers and staff provide additional layers of COVID-19 protection in schools.
  92. 92.

    jl

    @Scout211: Thanks very much. I looked through the CDC site for something like that, but couldn’t find it.

    I do know from local public health people and infectious disease doctors that there is a big debate inside and outside CDC about whether their their current guidance should be changed.

    The concern is that there is growing evidence that it should be changed, at least for places with low community transmission, and won’t be good to change recommendations for say, summer camps and rec center activities at the last minute. Same for schools as the school season approaches.

  94. 94.

    Ksmiami

    @geg6: and this is why I hope that Covid reduces the numbers of Republicans. There. I said it and I don’t really care- do you?

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ruckus: ​
      Correct. And also another good idea is that before taking offense at something says here, first consider that it might be snark. Then be as offended as you want.

  98. 98.

    FlyingToaster

    @geg6: What I’m seeing locally (Greater Bwahstin) is that the uni’s are by-and-large telling students that their choices are to get jabbed (and prove it) or get a brain swab every day they come on campus.

    Which is a reasonable compromise:  “Yes we know it’s not yet a fully approved vaccine (such as MMR).  But without proof of vaccination, we’ll need daily confirmation that you aren’t spreading deadly disease.  You filthy animals.”

  99. 99.

    J R in WV

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    That was probably the single most destructive thing Trump did: politicizing masks. If he hadn’t whined about it like a baby — had he shown some leadership on the issue or just STFU and let Fauci make recommendations — how many lives would have been saved?

    Trump killed hundreds of thousands of people by acting like a moron about everything his medical experts had to say about this virus. I can’t believe how much damage that monster did to our country.

    I wonder if he had instructions from V V Putin about how to handle things like a REAL [Russian] MAN~!!~ I don’t know how that could have been managed, really. But still, it seems so likely in retrospect.

  100. 100.

    StringOnAStick

    I heard a local interview show on Oregon NPR, talking to the health department guy for the county with the lowest vaccination rate.  The interviewer asked good hard questions, like “is this political since Lake is a very conservative county?” and the guy would not budge not entertain the idea that masks or vaccination has a political component in his county.  The guy must have gone to an ALEC school to train for the ability to dodge and weave like he did.  The reporter related how early in the pandemic two colleagues went to a restaurant in that county, no one was wearing a mask and they were refused service unless they took theirs off; he hand waved that off too.

    These bastards.

  101. 101.

    Freemark

    I have to admit I’m not sure why people didn’t see this as being sarcasm. Yes, on the internet sarcasm can be difficult to detect. But Balloon-Juice’s default setting is sarcasm/snark.

    IRL I’m a majorly sarcastic and facetious mf’er. Yet I must have a delivery that makes people not realize that. So I’m not surprised people don’t get what, to me, is obvious sarcasm on the internet. Not sure why their hasn’t been a Snark font or an italics like highlight added to text boxes yet.

  102. 102.

    david

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    So roughly 1/3 of new cases (60/183) are among those under 20. Well heck, sure looks like kids don’t need no steenkin’ masks, duzzit? //

    It’s almost as if we had vaccines for people 16 and older for the last few months…

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