Perhaps I inferred but what I’ve read is Doctirs should wear N95 and they are boat whereas surgical masks don’t fit. Such as from this CDC guidance. If they are saying Drs should wear I am inferring that to mean they are best but again I admit I’m not a doctor. Just a concerned citizen.
How well do face masks protect against COVID-19? - Mayo Clinic.
You could wear full PPE like that of a health care worker in a COVID-19 ward of a hospital when you go out for a walk in an uncrowded outdoor park, but that is probably way too much for the minimal risk that a walk in an uncrowded outdoor park poses.
I.e. the most protective equipment is not necessarily the “best” for all situations.
So medical professionals wear N95s that are properly fitted and tested. They should be left to doctors who have for doctors with high level, repeated exposures. The CDC only recommends that medical professionals use N95s. There is no specific recommendation to my knowledge that people without high level exposure to known or presumed positive people wear N95s. KN95s are thought to be close to N95s but they are not medical and of varied quality. Now that they are easily available it is certainly reasonable to get them if you want, but this is not the CDC recommendation (I am a doctor and I wear a surgical mask when I see my non-vaccinated and often unmasked pediatric patients) But this is clearly off topic of K-12 school openings!
From everything I read surgical masks don’t seal and due the airborne-ness of delta it’s why many are getting where the n95 filters out. I see the dr rec as more a supply issue, let’s not take from who needs.
Again I’m no dr. But everywhere you read. You hear on tv. Cloth and wraps/bandanas are no good and surgical masks are better than nothing. But kn95 and n95 are what’s recommended. Anyway I just hope this surge ends soon
Here’s what the UK scientists have concluded (though teenagers are likely to be offered vaccinations anyway):
“The JCVI concluded that the benefits of vaccinating children “marginally” outweighed the risk of side effects. But members were increasingly convinced that the vaccines did sometimes lead to heart inflammation, which is usually mild but with unknown long-term consequences. The committee concluded that it could not recommend mass vaccination of millions of healthy children since Covid is only a mild illness for the vast majority of young people.
Vaccination of a million teenagers would prevent only two admissions to intensive care for Covid. The committee said this was “too small to support advice on a universal programme of vaccination of otherwise healthy 12 to 15-year-old children”. Members considered only the direct health benefits to children and acknowledged that ministers might want to take “wider societal and educational impacts” into account.”
Saw a headline in the news this morning that a nearby County DA refuses to prosecute any citations related to school masking.
Personally I doubt any kids would be affected, because they just get sent home if they won’t wear a mask correctly. I assume that would be true of staff too. If there’s a “citation” problem it would be with school admin not enforcing it.
Nice to know DA’s are now the law of the land, and of course it happened prior to the school issue too - it’s not new - it’s just aggravating as a principle.
Yes, that is about the internal effects on children (though they probably did not look at long COVID-19, a generally neglected area in COVID-19 research that has little and low quality data as a consequence of that neglect). Children tend to have greater external effects in terms of sharing viruses (of various kinds) with each other and adults they come in contact with (relatives, teachers, etc.).
Of course, what is likely to happen is that in places where external effects are lower (high adult vaccination rate), parents are more likely to get their kids vaccinated, while in places where the external effects are higher (low adult vaccination rate, hospitals overflowing with COVID-19 patients as a result), parents are less likely to get their kids vaccinated. In the former case, COVID-19 may be seen as scary, but is less likely actually to cause serious problems. In the latter case, COVID-19 may be disregarded as a threat, but people are more likely to encounter problems like getting bad cases while unvaccinated, teachers getting sick, being unable to get medical care due to health care being filled with COVID-19 patients, etc…
Read today….13,000 Covid cases of school age kids in the last two weeks in Alabama. This is since school started. And supposedly a large percentage of schools have mask mandates.
Not the least bit surprising to me. Schools are where kids share germs. They always have been. I’m not sure why anyone thinks Covid will be different.
It would be interesting to see if there’s any statistically significant difference between schools where masking is mandated AND enforced vs where it isn’t.
A mandate is absolutely meaningless if it isn’t enforced.
Some issues are it’s mandated but not aiways enforced. Not everyone wears properly…ie nose covering. You see this in airports and on airplanes. Not all masks fit well etc.
We will see more people near death saying they were wrong. We’ve already seen too much of that and it makes no impact. He’ll the president had to go on oxygen and it was like…I took some drugs. No problem. Stuff like that doesn’t help
What we unfortunately won’t see are people doing the right thing And trying to stomp this out.
Mask research
Interesting this weekend that my son who is a teacher and my D2’s roommate who is a teacher had the same dilemma/situation going.
After a long hard week of all things mentioned above now that kids are back in school (dealing with mask wearing, being behind in studies, not being able to focus, behavior issues galore, still poor attendance, etc.) both -unrelated to each other and in different locations - found themselves exhausted, displaying some “sick” symptoms - could be cold, could be allergy, could be COVID? What to do? Stay home and assure that you see no one in case? Get tested? (Son’s school at least has no COVID tests - WHY do schools not have a supply of tests like local libraries do?! At least for staff!!). They both said they would never be able to figure out who/where they got it. In the course of a day they are in contact with COUNTLESS people. S is in a K-8 teaching 7/8 but the majority of kids in the school due to age or otherwise are not vaccinated. He has several classes go through his room a day. He has to travel through the school and interact with other teachers all day long. Parents sometimes are in the building. Support staff. Literally they both feel like they are rolling the COVID dice. They hope to rely on their vaccine to keep them minimal if they get it. But it’s a sucky way to live.
For what it’s worth, both ended up getting tested Saturday just so they felt better about doing the light social things they hoped to do over the weekend.
We cannot be paying teachers enough right now for what they are doing. Especially the younger teachers who do not start out at a high salary.
At least now they can open windows, take the kids out for a walk, have recess for those young enough to get it. But cold weather is not far behind.
Back to the focus issues of students that seems to be common right now after being out of a real school routine for 18 months now……
I sometimes wonder if schools should easy back in to the 6-7 hour school day. Do in person, but for 4 hours a day - or some other formula. The 6-7 hour day seems to be a lot for many kids right now. (I know, I know, child care then does become an issue….)
I was surprised that our school district didn’t stick with the 8-1:15 schedule at least for the middle and high school. There was only a minuscule decrease in school hours for the kids and many actually preferred to be home for lunch and afterschool activities.
my daughter has a real cold. She gets covid tested in her school and also got covid last year and double vaccinated with Moderna. Those other germs are still floating around.
She is in a Title 1 school and the the kids are so far behind.
This was brought to my attention:
It boggles my mind that at least one board member aligned it to forced masking (sigh).
Personally, I like the idea of free lunches for all in school. No stigma that way. Parents might, indeed, have spending issues (spending their paycheck from Thursday in the bar Friday - literally have seen it), but their kids shouldn’t have to go hungry because of it. Hungry kids have a much harder time concentrating on math.
Not all parents will apply for the free lunch program. Some don’t qualify and others would rather their kids go hungry. It’s sad.
But to tie it all into mask mandates? WTH?
Our school sent out an email tonight (with PA’s state mandated mask order supposed to start tomorrow) that says due to pushback from parents we are now going to make next week a “transition week” and not start enforcing the mandate until Sept 13th.
In the meantime they are helping families get their kids exempt if they are eligible. Teachers have been requested not to engage in conversation when it comes up, as they note it will.
This was also a sentence in the email:
“It is important to note that we do not have the option to ignore the mandate regardless of people’s perceptions otherwise. It is grounded in law and we are required by law to follow it.”
I wonder if the state gave schools the option to not enforce it for an additional week or if we’re doing it on our own.
So very glad I’m not there this year as I would have been other years. I feel for all teachers and staff who are there, then there’s the kids caught in the middle.
I have always wanted free school lunch for all. They are children, feed them. In Denver they’ve had free breakfast for all students for years. No administrative costs, just anyone who shows up gets a free breakfast (some schools do require the student get there 20 minutes early, others have a ‘grab and go’ and they eat in their first class).
Lunches last year were served in boxes in their classrooms or outside. Sort of nice that everyone got the same thing.
I hope they find it is just as convenient and cost efficient to just feed all students. No need for cashiers, no paperwork, very little choice, less junk food available for purchase at the schools.
Great. What they are going to do this week (especially after a long holiday weekend where people were social) is “transition” into a bunch of active COVID cases in their school. You should transition at some point OFF of masks, not transition INTO masks - the damage will already be done if the policy is lax.
But you don’t understand… it’s all a hoax. So many reliable, trustworthy people have said so. Kids need to breathe free or they can’t learn! Or so say a highly vocal set of people. I don’t think they’re the majority, even where we live, but they’re loud.
PA has a court case filed as of Friday to block the mandate - filed by a certain political party and parents. My guess is school expects to see the results of this before the week is out and just didn’t want to have to deal with the public.
Kids who come to school without masks are given one. If they refuse to put it on they’re supposed to be social distanced 3’ from others in the classroom and the teacher adds their name to a list the office will talk to in order to see if they qualify for the exemption.
Can’t say I think that’s going to help at all TBH. If Covid is around at school, it’s going to spread.