got email - school district dropping mask requirement as of August

[ktgrok]

Despite knowing it will be likely September or later that Elementary kids can be vaccinated. Would it kill them to keep the requirement in place at least at elementary level until then? 

It does say if your kid is high risk, to consult their doctor on if they should mask. Which means a full freaking year later and they STILL don't get that masking mostly works to protect others. An at risk kid  in a room of 20-30 unvaccinated, unmasked kids for 6 hours is not going to be protected if they wear their own mask and no one else is. 

email says everyone should celebrate! (cases are still 10 per 100K here)

[Ditto]

I am endlessly frustrated with the increasing numbers of places dropping the mask mandate.    While I hope I am wrong, I fear we will look back a year from now and see this was the exact wrong thing to do.

[athena1277]

All the schools around here have dropped them or are dropping them when summer school starts.  Kids are at such a low risk, I don’t think it will be a huge issue except for those with immune problems.  All the teachers and staff who want the vax have had plenty of opportunity to get it by now.  

[ktgrok]

23 minutes ago, athena1277 said:

All the schools around here have dropped them or are dropping them when summer school starts.  Kids are at such a low risk, I don’t think it will be a huge issue except for those with immune problems.  All the teachers and staff who want the vax have had plenty of opportunity to get it by now.  

And masking for a few more months to protect those that do have immune problems, until they can get vaccinated is too much to ask?

One of the doctors on the medical advisory board for the district has a pediatric patient in the ICU right now. He brought it up at the school board meeting. But only healthy kids, with great immune systems, seem to matter to anyone in our district. 

[whitestavern]

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/ny-to-eliminate-indoor-mask-rule-for-all-students-staff-in-schools-and-camps-monday/3091051/

[kokotg]

24 minutes ago, whitestavern said:

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/ny-to-eliminate-indoor-mask-rule-for-all-students-staff-in-schools-and-camps-monday/3091051/

Their letter to the CDC is weird. It basically says, "we know that you still say masks should be required in schools, but we're thinking you don't actually mean that--right? Let us know! thanks!"

[happi duck]

Today concern was expressed because severe illness is rising in teens 😞

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/06/04/covid-teenagers-increasing-hospitalizations/%3foutputType=amp

 

 

[Shelydon]

I am okay with middle and high schools not masking as now everyone over 12 can be vaccinated if they want.  I would want elementary schools to mask or offer virtual learning until elementary aged kids are eligible to mask.

[ktgrok]

33 minutes ago, Shelydon said:

I am okay with middle and high schools not masking as now everyone over 12 can be vaccinated if they want.  I would want elementary schools to mask or offer virtual learning until elementary aged kids are eligible to mask.

exactly!

You masked all last year - why pick some meaningless, arbitrary date when in a few months everyone who wants to be can be vaccinated!

[Bootsie]

1 hour ago, happi duck said:

Today concern was expressed because severe illness is rising in teens 😞

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/06/04/covid-teenagers-increasing-hospitalizations/%3foutputType=amp

 

 

If you look at the actual study, it is 

"COVID-19 adolescent hospitalization rates from COVID-NET peaked at 2.1 per 100,000 in early January 2021, declined to 0.6 in mid-March, and rose to 1.3 in April. Among hospitalized adolescents,"

So the rate of hospitalization is lower now than in early January

[AmandaVT]

Our district isn't letting vaccinated staff remove masks while in the same room even if students aren't on campus. It's feeling like annoying overkill at this point. Students still have to mask outside too. I am hoping we'll have restrictions loosened by the start of the year. VT is closing in on an 80% vaccination rate, which should (I think) mean herd immunity is close?

[freesia]

9 minutes ago, AmandaVT said:

Our district isn't letting vaccinated staff remove masks while in the same room even if students aren't on campus. It's feeling like annoying overkill at this point. Students still have to mask outside too. I am hoping we'll have restrictions loosened by the start of the year. VT is closing in on an 80% vaccination rate, which should (I think) mean herd immunity is close?

Or already reached I would think. Vermont’s case rate is super low right now. That does seem like overkill. 

[AmandaVT]

13 minutes ago, freesia said:

Or already reached I would think. Vermont’s case rate is super low right now. That does seem like overkill. 

I can't remember the last time I heard about any outbreaks. We seem to mostly have scattered cases here and there at this point. Most days recently have been in the single digits and we have 1 person in the state hospitalized for Covid total and no deaths in more than 2 weeks. Most people are still masking even outside, which I'm totally cool with. I'm a little annoyed that the state regulations are that vaccinated people can be together indoors, unmasked, but our district is being so much stricter. 

[freesia]

18 minutes ago, AmandaVT said:

I can't remember the last time I heard about any outbreaks. We seem to mostly have scattered cases here and there at this point. Most days recently have been in the single digits and we have 1 person in the state hospitalized for Covid total and no deaths in more than 2 weeks. Most people are still masking even outside, which I'm totally cool with. I'm a little annoyed that the state regulations are that vaccinated people can be together indoors, unmasked, but our district is being so much stricter. 

I would be, too. I would be surprised if that lasts into next school year. Some people don’t like changing rules if it’s just the last coup of weeks. Hopefully when they think about it and the numbers stay down, it will change. 

[Tanaqui]

I think they should keep the mask requirements as well, especially if the class size is going up again. At least until the end of winter.

[Katy]

I’m thinking it will change as variants that infect younger children become more widespread.

[happi duck]

It's frustrating to just not hang in there a bit longer!

[Penelope]

2 hours ago, Bootsie said:

If you look at the actual study, it is 

"COVID-19 adolescent hospitalization rates from COVID-NET peaked at 2.1 per 100,000 in early January 2021, declined to 0.6 in mid-March, and rose to 1.3 in April. Among hospitalized adolescents,"

So the rate of hospitalization is lower now than in early January

It is also even lower than that now. Highly qualified doctors on social media dismayed that this misleading report was highly publicized. 
Example

[Penelope]

50 minutes ago, Katy said:

I’m thinking it will change as variants that infect younger children become more widespread.

What variants would those be?

[KSera]

4 hours ago, Shelydon said:

I am okay with middle and high schools not masking as now everyone over 12 can be vaccinated if they want.  

Seems to me they should wait three weeks for that. Two days ago was the earliest 12-15 year olds could have been eligible for their second shot. Then they need two weeks past that for it to take effect. And that would be for kids who got it as soon as they possibly could. After all this time, seems like it would make sense to not let down their guard right when the kids are *almost* fully vaccinated. 

2 hours ago, AmandaVT said:

I can't remember the last time I heard about any outbreaks. We seem to mostly have scattered cases here and there at this point. Most days recently have been in the single digits and we have 1 person in the state hospitalized for Covid total and no deaths in more than 2 weeks. Most people are still masking even outside, which I'm totally cool with. I'm a little annoyed that the state regulations are that vaccinated people can be together indoors, unmasked, but our district is being so much stricter. 

Wow! That’s amazing! I knew Vermont was doing well, but hadn’t looked at the actual numbers. 

[Bootsie]

14 hours ago, Penelope said:

It is also even lower than that now. Highly qualified doctors on social media dismayed that this misleading report was highly publicized. 
Example

Yes, looking at the actual study, it is hard to see how the facts meet the headlines.  There were 204 12-17 year old's hospitalized for COVID during the January-March time period.  This is from a sample of 14 states representing 10% of the population.  One quarter of those spent one day in the hospital.  Half spent less the 2.4 days.  A total of 64 were admitted to ICU with 10 placed on mechanical ventilation; there is no information in the report that provides when in the January-March period the ICU admissions occurred; so you can't tell if those being hospitalized are more severe cases than before.  

It is extremely sad when anyone is sick from COID and I have a high school friend who had his son in this age group die from COVID (while his other son was hospitalized) so these are not simply cold statistics to me, but the report states a concern for the POTENTIAL for severe disease in this age group.  That is very different than the headlines stating that severe disease is increasing in this age group.  The report made it sound as if hospitals are being flooded with severely ill patients from this age group.  Over a 16 week period 64 people were admitted to ICU across the 14 surveillance states.  If that were evenly distributed over the time period, that would be 4 per week, spread across all of those hospitals.  Given those small numbers, it is hard to statistically detect any type of trend--one week we go to five, that is a 25% increase--another week it drops to 3--that is a 33% decrease!  Those numbers can sound dramatic but aren't statstically significant. 

[freesia]

4 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

Yes, looking at the actual study, it is hard to see how the facts meet the headlines.  There were 204 12-17 year old's hospitalized for COVID during the January-March time period.  This is from a sample of 14 states representing 10% of the population.  One quarter of those spent one day in the hospital.  Half spent less the 2.4 days.  A total of 64 were admitted to ICU with 10 placed on mechanical ventilation; there is no information in the report that provides when in the January-March period the ICU admissions occurred; so you can't tell if those being hospitalized are more severe cases than before.  

It is extremely sad when anyone is sick from COID and I have a high school friend who had his son in this age group die from COVID (while his other son was hospitalized) so these are not simply cold statistics to me, but the report states a concern for the POTENTIAL for severe disease in this age group.  That is very different than the headlines stating that severe disease is increasing in this age group.  The report made it sound as if hospitals are being flooded with severely ill patients from this age group.  Over a 16 week period 64 people were admitted to ICU across the 14 surveillance states.  If that were evenly distributed over the time period, that would be 4 per week, spread across all of those hospitals.  Given those small numbers, it is hard to statistically detect any type of trend--one week we go to five, that is a 25% increase--another week it drops to 3--that is a 33% decrease!  Those numbers can sound dramatic but aren't statstically significant. 

I agree.  I've had a child who had to be hospitalized from a throat abscess due to strep throat.  Children do get hospitalized when sick.  It's not that rare.  I have no problem with the vaccination at all.  I do have a problem with statistics being used this way to scare people into vaccinating.  Of course we don't want any child to die, but I don't see that as a huge risk and I'm more concerned about the children who can't get vaccinated yet and their parents anxiety level due to reports like this.

[KSera]

I see the issue with the uptick in hospitalizations turning down again after the study period. On the other hand,

”The researchers compared the numbers for Covid-19 with hospitalizations for flu in the same age group during the 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 flu seasons. From Oct. 1, 2020, to April 24, 2021, hospitalization rates for Covid-19 among adolescents were 2.5 to 3.0 times higher than for seasonal flu in previous years.”

So, there does appear to be strong evidence Covid is worse for kids than flu (which is commonly vaccinated against)  

 

[Bootsie]

5 minutes ago, KSera said:

I see the issue with the uptick in hospitalizations turning down again after the study period. On the other hand,

”The researchers compared the numbers for Covid-19 with hospitalizations for flu in the same age group during the 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 flu seasons. From Oct. 1, 2020, to April 24, 2021, hospitalization rates for Covid-19 among adolescents were 2.5 to 3.0 times higher than for seasonal flu in previous years.”

So, there does appear to be strong evidence Covid is worse for kids than flu (which is commonly vaccinated against)  

 

Yes that is true.  But, these statistics are not what the headlines are reporting.  The headlines are not comparing the rate of being hospitalized for flu versus COVID.  From the statistics I have seen about 50% of the 13-17 age group tends to be vaccinated for flu. 

If you look at the study, youth who were hospitalized for non-COVID related issues were MORE LIKELY to be placed on mechanical ventilation than those hospitalized for COVID.  And, they are more likely to be hospitalized for longer.

I would prefer for people to make vaccination decisions based on fact than anxiety induced by sensational headlines.  

[Penelope]

2 hours ago, KSera said:

I see the issue with the uptick in hospitalizations turning down again after the study period. On the other hand,

”The researchers compared the numbers for Covid-19 with hospitalizations for flu in the same age group during the 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 flu seasons. From Oct. 1, 2020, to April 24, 2021, hospitalization rates for Covid-19 among adolescents were 2.5 to 3.0 times higher than for seasonal flu in previous years.”

So, there does appear to be strong evidence Covid is worse for kids than flu (which is commonly vaccinated against)  

 

I don’t think we can say that. Some of the issues I’ve seen mentioned:

- we have never tested every hospital admission for flu the way we have been for Covid. That’s huge. 
 

- they pulled out the 46% of cases that were Covid positive but not actually due to Covid (surgeries, OB, interestingly about half were psychiatric admissions), to look at the remaining cases separately, but when they compared the rates to influenza hospitalization-  they left these in! So they compared actual influenza admissions to “Covid admissions” where nearly half were not admitted because of Covid-related disease. (And this matches with the two other pediatric studies showing that about 45% of admissions were Covid positive but not because of Covid).

- they compared typical flu seasons to a new infection that was surging during the same time period. Fine that they did this, but not fine that it wasn’t accurately.
-However, even if Covid was actually worse according to this analysis, that has little meaning for any comparisons from now on. We now have a good level of population immunity for Covid from natural infection and vaccines, and the vaccines are so much better than flu vaccines. Even if this study were a good comparison, and many have said it’s not, we are not in the same situation with Covid anymore, so it isn’t useful for making predictions. 

[SKL]

Our school system issued a statement a week or two ago, saying it's too early to say what we're going to do in the fall.  That seems responsible to me.

[SKL]

I wonder if the reason schools are ready to ditch masks is because masking, especially among little kids, is more trouble than it's worth.  I'm not talking just about the discomfort of wearing a mask, but the amount of work / time that teachers need to put into the rules.  I wonder if there is a concensus that significantly less learning took place because of the amount of time spent teaching, monitoring, reminding, and enforcing mask protocols.  I wonder if it impacted discipline and socialization that enhances learning.  I wonder if it had a significant impact on teachers' stress level.  And I wonder if it had economic costs that are unreasonable.

Did the schools make changes in 2020-21 that would make ventilation etc. better going into 2021-22?  That could also be a good reason to ditch masks.

I wouldn't be so sure that the majority of kids will get vaxed in 2021-22, even if a vax gets approved.  It may be a long time before a high % of parents are ready to vax their little kids, especially in counties where vax uptake isn't that high among adults/teens.  So schools might just be accepting reality as far as that goes.

[ktgrok]

2 minutes ago, SKL said:

I wonder if the reason schools are ready to ditch masks is because masking, especially among little kids, is more trouble than it's worth.  I'm not talking just about the discomfort of wearing a mask, but the amount of work / time that teachers need to put into the rules.  I wonder if there is a concensus that significantly less learning took place because of the amount of time spent teaching, monitoring, reminding, and enforcing mask protocols.  I wonder if it impacted discipline and socialization that enhances learning.  I wonder if it had a significant impact on teachers' stress level.  And I wonder if it had economic costs that are unreasonable.

Did the schools make changes in 2020-21 that would make ventilation etc. better going into 2021-22?  That could also be a good reason to ditch masks.

I wouldn't be so sure that the majority of kids will get vaxed in 2021-22, even if a vax gets approved.  It may be a long time before a high % of parents are ready to vax their little kids, especially in counties where vax uptake isn't that high among adults/teens.  So schools might just be accepting reality as far as that goes.

It isn't the teachers asking to stop masks - it's some very vocal parents.And no, no ventilation issues. 

I agree that it may not be a majority of kids, but at LEAST wait until those that want to vaccinate, can. Not a perfect solution, but seems the minimum you can ask for. 

They flat out said that the medical advice is to keep masking in kids under 12 until they can be vaccinated, but there is pressure from parents to do it earlier, so that's what they are doing. It is 100 percent about giving in to peer pressure - nothing else - as stated by the board itself. 

[Terabith]

I have a friend with a 10 year old (who obviously cannot be vaccinated) who was born with a congenital heart defect and only has one lung.  Their first child was born with the same congenital issue and died at one year of age.  Not only is the town where they live in New York State dropping the mask mandate for children in schools (as of Monday, which means she cannot attend the move up to middle school or an outdoor field trip she really was looking forward to), but also, next year, there will be no online public school option.  They do not feel equipped to homeschool but it absolutely is unsafe for her to attend school.  It's possible she can be considered homebound, but that's not really intended to be a permanent solution.