This news should be obvious -- it is now backed by multiple studies. Schools without enforced mask mandates are much more likely to have Covid outbreaks than schools which have mask mandates. Bottom Line: Masks work! This is also obvious from the fall semester school start-up experience in North Carolina in face of the highly infectious Delta variant and high community spread. Each county school system in our state was allowed to establish their own policy while the state provided data. Schools systems that started the school year with a mask mandate has some Covid issues but did not have to shut down the entire schools (or the entire school system). Counties that started without a mask mandate quickly found themselves overrun with Covid with a high number of staff and students out. Most had to close schools and in many instances the entire school system. Many quickly reverted to requiring masks -- the few right-wing county school systems that still refuse masks are still have massive Covid issues. In-person instruction is much more effective than remote instruction for K-12 students. If masks allow school to stay in-person in an environment where many children cannot be vaccinated yet -- then masks should be used because they allow in-person instruction to continue and avoid having to go remote. Of course -- all of this information about masks being effective in schools is now backed by multiple large studies from the CDC. Schools without mask mandates are more likely to have COVID-19 outbreaks, CDC finds https://www.cbsnews.com/news/school...-likely-to-have-covid-19-outbreaks-cdc-finds/ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new studies Friday that show enforcing masks in schools helps reduce the spread of COVID-19. One study looked at data from schools in Arizona's Maricopa and Pima Counties after they resumed in-person learning in late July for the 2021-22 academic year. The two counties account for roughly 75% of the state's population. The CDC found that the K-12 schools that did not have mask requirements at the beginning of the school year were 3.5 times more likely to have COVID outbreaks than schools that required all people, regardless of vaccination status, to wear a mask indoors from the first day of school. Of the 999 schools analyzed in the study, 21% had an early mask requirement, 30.9% enacted a mask requirement between nine and 17 days after the school year began, and 48% had no mask requirement. Of the 191 COVID outbreaks that occurred in those schools from July 15 to August 31, 113 were in schools that did not enforce masks at all. Schools with early mask requirements had the lowest number of outbreaks. During that time frame, Arizona was experiencing an upward trend of weekly COVID cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. Another study from the CDC looked at the impact of school mask mandates across the U.S. Authors looked at data from 520 counties that started school between July 1 and September 4 this year and had at least a full week of case data from the school year. They only looked at counties where all the schools had the same mask policies. Of the 520 counties, 198 had a school mask requirement and 322 did not. Researchers found that counties that had no mask requirements in their schools had a higher rate of pediatric COVID cases after the school year began than those schools that did have requirements. Schools that required masks, the study found, had 16.32 cases per 100,000 children in the first week of classes; schools without had 34.85 cases per 100,000 children. Authors did note, however, that all children in the counties were included in the data and not just those who are school-age. They also noted that teacher vaccinate rates and school testing data were not controlled in the analyses, and that the sample size of counties is small. In both studies, authors reiterated that "consistent and correct mask use is a critical strategy" for preventing the spread of COVID-19. Teenagers have recently made up the majority of weekly cases, according to the CDC, with elderly adults making up some of the lowest numbers of weekly cases. The new research comes amid ongoing debates over mask mandates — a hot-button issue in some parts of the country. Several states, including Florida, Texas and Arizona, have attempted to ban school districts from enforcing masks. Meanwhile, schools in Iowa, South Carolina, Tennessee are undergoing investigations from the Department of Education for their mask mandate bans, with the department saying the decision can put students' health in jeopardy. School board meetings have become a focal point for mask mandate debates. With many districts weighing their options for new rules to curb the spread of COVID-19, many have jumped in to claim that requiring masks is not necessary and a violation of their rights. A CBS News poll in August found that while more than half of surveyed parents believe schools should require masks for children, 36% believe they should be optional, and 6% think they shouldn't be allowed at all. Additionally, 52% of surveyed parents think vaccines should not be required for students. The CDC has maintained that universal indoor masking is an important tool in helping prevent the spread. The agency says all teachers, staff, students and visitors in K-12 schools should wear masks, regardless of their vaccination status.
Schools without mask mandates are 3.5 times more likely to have a COVID-19 outbreak: study https://www.audacy.com/wccoradio/ne...-mask-mandates-have-higher-chance-of-outbreak A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that mask mandates in schools can reduce the spread of COVID-19. The study, which looked at Arizona's Maricopa and Pima Counties, found that K-12 schools without mask mandates are 3.5 times more likely to have COVID-19 outbreaks compared to schools that enforce mask-wearing. (More at above url)
COVID outbreaks have been traced in at least 25% of Iowa schools, court documents say https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...-mask-mandate-court-documents-say/5892953001/ Nearly a quarter of Iowa public school students are in districts that have experienced significant COVID-19 outbreaks this year, according to a federal lawsuit seeking to prevent the state from enforcing a law banning mask mandates in schools. The information indicates 11 school districts, including Waterloo, Sioux City and Muscatine, reported more positive cases in the first month of the school year than during the entire previous year. The data was included in court documents made public Monday by lawyers for 11 parents and the disability rights group The Arc of Iowa who are suing the state. More:Judge extends order blocking mask mandate ban for two weeks, letting Iowa schools keep requiring masks The documents say 16 other school districts, including Marshalltown, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, have already recorded coronavirus cases amounting to at least 50% of the tally for the last school year. The 27 school districts represent 24.5% of all Iowa public school students. The court document cited local and state data and school information collected by Iowa COVID-19 Tracker, an online service that compiles data from government sources including school districts. The documents said Van Buren County school district officials reported an average of six positive cases per day, a 128% increase from the average two weeks ago. For the week of Sept. 13, the district reported that 18% of its students were absent. West Burlington School District's school nurse reported the district had almost as many COVID-19 positives in the elementary school in the first two weeks of the year as they had the entire previous school year. At the junior-senior high level, case numbers were triple those of last year. Efforts to track outbreaks in schools have been hampered by policies implemented by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in July that discontinued daily reporting of virus activity. In addition, Iowa is no longer providing widespread testing, leaving families to find their own tests if a child is exposed or symptomatic. Reynolds has said she is adopting a policy in which the state treats COVID-19 like the flu, which means state officials have stopped investigating cases and contact tracing in schools. Reynolds rejected more than $95 million in federal pandemic relief offered to Iowa to fund testing, contact tracing and other mitigation measures. She said the state didn't need the money. In a response to questions about her statements questioning the effectiveness of masks in schools, Reynolds' spokesman Alex Murphy said masks should be a parental choice, and he repeated discredited information that masks cause social, behavioral and speech development problems. More:University of Iowa faculty leaders make plea for mask requirement in classrooms The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that transmission rates in schools with universal masking were less than half those of schools without mask mandates. Another CDC study found that the odds of a school-associated COVID-19 outbreak were 3.5 times higher in schools with no mask requirement than in those with a mask requirement implemented at the time school started. Iowa data shows a continued surge in new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Data posted Monday by the Iowa Department of Public Health indicated 12 children age 11 or younger were hospitalized in Iowa with COVID-19. They were among the 641 Iowans being treated in hospitals for the virus. The report said 151 people were in intensive care. Last week, the state public health department reported that more than 3,000 children had tested positive for COVID-19, more than a quarter of the state's 12,163 new reported cases in the previous seven days. The percentage of infected children was a record high, Srivinas said. At least 24 school districts have reinstated a mask mandate since Judge Robert Pratt issued a temporary restraining order on Sept. 13 preventing the state from enforcing the ban on school districts mandating masks, lawyers for the plaintiffs said in court documents.
Two federal judges rule local Tennessee school districts can mandate masks https://thehill.com/homenews/state-...-local-tennessee-school-districts-can-mandate
Oregon school district with a right-wing anti-mask superintendent would be making a valiant stand against state mask mandates if only he had enough healthy staff. Oregon school district planned to lift mask mandate Monday - but closed due to illnesses https://katu.com/news/local/oregon-...sk-mandate-monday-but-closed-due-to-illnesses
I wonder if those teachers called in sick because they really are sick or they called in sick because it's their way of protesting about the lifting of the school mask mandates in the school. Also, there's a growing list of other schools considering doing the same in which teachers call in sick on the same days to protest when their schools lift mask mandates because the teachers do not feel safe at the schools. Yet, if they're calling in sick just to protest... it's not going to solve the problem because when a school temporarily closes for a few days...they will then just extend the school year a little longer to compensate for the missed days. wrbtrader
Let me show you an example of why teachers are fed up with fucktarded parents. My friend works at a child care center. Parents are supposed to daily confirm that the kid has not had a fever or any symptoms and no one in the house has tested positive or been sick. The center has young children so realistically they cannot follow consistent mitigation strategies so they rely on daily checking with parents to make sure no one is coming in with COVID or from a household with COVID. If so then the kid has to stay home. So my friend is talking to a kid about their weekend and the kid says that "Daddy has been locked in the basement and she could not go down there to see him" Basically admitting the Dad was positive and isolating in house but the Mom dropped the kid off and basically lied on the daily commitment. Kid was sent home. It isn't vax status or even belief in masking... it is just low level fucktardedness of parents and people who want to lie to avoid having to follow simple rules on staying the fuck at home. I know many people who refuse to get vaccinated and hate masks but WOULD NEVER go to work/school sick or if they had a close contact because they know they could still spread it to other people and have a common sense just like if they had any other contagious thing.