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* AP…
Vaccinated teachers and students don’t need to wear masks inside school buildings, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday in relaxing its COVID-19 guidelines.
The changes come amid a national vaccination campaign in which children as young as 12 are eligible to get shots, as well as a general decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.
“We’re at a new point in the pandemic that we’re all really excited about,” and so it’s time to update the guidance, said Erin Sauber-Schatz, who leads the CDC task force that prepares recommendations designed to keep Americans safe from COVID-19.
The nation’s top public health agency is not advising schools to require shots for teachers and vaccine-eligible kids. And it’s not offering guidance on how teachers can know which students are vaccinated or how parents will know which teachers are immunized.
* NYT…
The agency will also call on school districts to use local health data to guide decisions about when to tighten or relax prevention measures like mask wearing and physical distancing. Officials said they were confident this is the correct approach, even with the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, and the fact that children under 12 are not yet eligible for vaccination.
The guidance, which The Times has seen in draft form, is a sharp departure from the C.D.C.’s past recommendations for schools, bluntly acknowledging that many students have suffered during long months of virtual learning and that a uniform approach is not useful when virus caseloads and vaccination rates vary so greatly from city to city and state to state. […]
The new guidance will continue to recommend that students be spaced at least three feet apart, but with a new caveat: If maintaining such spacing would prevent schools from fully reopening, they could rely on a combination of other strategies like indoor masking, testing and enhanced ventilation. The guidance recommends masks for all unvaccinated students, teachers or staff members. […]
It also strongly urges schools to promote vaccination, which it called “one of the most critical strategies to help schools safely resume full operations.” Studies suggest that vaccines remain effective against the Delta variant. […]
The guidance relies heavily on the concept of “layered” prevention, or using multiple strategies at once. In addition to masking and social distancing, those strategies may include regular screening testing, improving ventilation, promoting hand washing, and contact tracing combined with isolation or quarantine.
The recommendations call on local officials to closely monitor the pandemic in their areas, and suggest that if districts want to remove prevention strategies in schools based on local conditions, they should remove one at a time, monitoring for any increases in Covid-19.
* WaPo…
The guidance, which is not binding, reflects many of the same concepts that the CDC released in April and May for the broader population.
But it may fuel a new round of political debate about masking and vaccinations — heralded by some, derided by others — as divisions carry over to practices in schools.
And practically speaking, it may be difficult to implement: It does not spell out how schools would collect accurate information about who is vaccinated — and thus able to go without a mask — and who is not.
“The school has to decide if and how they’re able to document vaccination status,” Sauber-Schatz said. If that is not possible, she said, “the safest thing to do to protect those people who are not fully vaccinated” is to go with a universal policy requiring masks.
I’ll post the guidance when it’s published by the CDC.
* ABC…
The CDC also recommends that all bus drivers and their passengers — vaccinated or not — wear a mask while traveling to school.
The biggest sticking point for schools though will likely be whether to require proof of vaccination. Most schools already require proof of childhood immunizations with few exceptions.
The CDC, which does not set vaccination requirements for schools or child care centers, makes clear in its recommendations that it will be up to schools and local officials to decide what to do. The agency specifically notes that schools may opt for a universal masking policy, particularly if they have unvaccinated populations and don’t want to require verification that a person has been vaccinated.
“We do allow for flexibility in our guidance,” said Capt. Erin Sauber-Schatz, who helped to write the guidelines as a member of CDC’s COVID response team.
*** UPDATE *** The new CDC guidance for K-12 is here. The new guidance for daycare is here.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 10:22 am
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Is Mayor Lightfoot going to use this to finally get CTU teachers back in the classroom?
Comment by Uncle Banya Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 10:42 am
“The nation’s top public health agency is not advising schools to require shots for teachers and vaccine-eligible kids. And it’s not offering guidance on how teachers can know which students are vaccinated or how parents will know which teachers are immunized.”
In other words the CDC doesn’t want to deal with the issues this policy creates so they wash their hands and make local school districts do the heavy lifting.
Comment by tea_and_honey Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 10:58 am
CDC continues to fumble around with the guidelines, despite a Covid surge in some areas. So they want bus drivers and passengers to wear masks, but not students in a classroom?? This is unworkable as “guidance”, and local school boards are going to make a mockery of this in some areas…at least until the first cluster outbreak takes out an entire school and surrounding community. And consider that some areas are doing very poorly with vaccinations with adults, let alone children, this will be another needless disaster because nobody will ORDER anything anymore trying to get back to normal. But it’s not normal without herd immunity.
Comment by thisjustinagain Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 11:24 am
=In other words the CDC doesn’t want to deal with the issues this policy creates so they wash their hands and make local school districts do the heavy lifting.=
Bingo. This will be a hoot I am sure.
Comment by JS Mill Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 11:32 am
School board members are going to be the most hated politicians in America if they go along with this.
Comment by Reading Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 11:34 am
=School board members are going to be the most hated politicians in America if they go along with this.=
Or if they don’t, depending on where you are.
Comment by JS Mill Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 11:54 am
The reality is that school districts will create form that parents can submit stating that their child has been vaccinated. And parents will sign it regardless . . . .
Comment by Out Here In The Middle Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 12:01 pm
Terrible idea as the Delta continues to spread (and it’s something even vaccinated people could transmit) and especially the fact that kids 12 and under aren’t allowed to be vaxxed yet (and clinical trials on the young kids might not be done for about 2 more years).
And especially terrible as the Western and Southern Blocs are among those areas in the state experiencing the surge. Region 3 (Springfield/Quincy, including the area where the Crossing church camp outbreak occurred) is now 4.5%. Region 4 (Metro East) is 6.1%, and Region 5 (southern and southeastern IL) is 5.2%. Plus McDonough County is in Region 2 but also hard hit by the Crossing outbreak, their positivity is 13.8%. Phase 5 needs to be rolled back in Regions 3, 4, and 5 immediately, as well as in McDonough County.
Comment by EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 12:18 pm
I’m waiting to hear from my district regarding this new information, though I plan to continue wearing a mask inside the classroom.
Comment by Wensicia Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 12:45 pm
Terrible idea as the Delta continues to spread. There is this…
From the Israeli health ministry
Vaccine protects 64% of people against Delta and is 94% effective at preventing severe illness, according to Health Ministry data
from IDPH
Percent of All Hospital Beds in use that are occupied by COVID+PUI patients: 2%
Comment by Donnie Elgin Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 12:45 pm
even all local medical facilities around Springfield require all to wear masks even if vaccinated. With Delta transmittable by vaccinated no masks at school is not a safe environment for kids especially those under 12 and the families of them all.
Comment by Peanut Friday, Jul 9, 21 @ 3:42 pm