CDC issues relaxed mask guidance
Fox News correspondent Jonathan Serrie reports the latest on the CDC's masking recommendations on 'Special Report.'
For the first time in two years, children are walking back into classrooms mask-free. For too long, policymakers and public perception have associated success with the absence of COVID.
But COVID is still present, so what is driving this sudden change of policy?
MORE SCHOOL MASK MANDATES FALL IN WEST COAST STATES
FILE - A student wears a mask and face shield in a 4th grade class amid the COVID-19 pandemic at Washington Elementary School on Jan. 12, 2022, in Lynwood, Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom delayed a closely watched decision on lifting California's school mask mandate Monday, Feb. 14 even as other Democratic governors around the country have dropped them in recent weeks. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) (AP)
Children have suffered a great deal from the pandemic lockdowns and have not been made a priority to regain normalcy as information evolved.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic many restrictions, such as mask-wearing in schools, were quickly enforced through desperation to slow the transmission despite negligible data proving benefit. But there were a lot of unknowns during this time so an all-hands-on deck effort could be justified.
However, by summer 2021 enough data emerged demonstrating cloth masks predominately had no perceptible benefit, and the low risk of severe COVID in children became apparent. Yet, no updates were made by the CDC regarding mask-wearing in schools. In fact, despite vaccines being readily available for everyone five years and older, it doubled down on its school masking recommendations as the less severe Omicron variant became dominant.
Schools are not documented places of high-risk exposure for kids yet too many have been kept home through remote learning because of closures, having close contact exposure, and various other reasons. When in-person, they still have been distanced from others with faces remained covered, and they were discouraged from physically interacting with one another. This has remained despite data from as early as November 2020 from the CDC, UK, and other countries showing low risk of in-school transmission. While the U.S. is the only country to recommend children two years and older wear masks, other countries with less stringent mask recommendations began removing school mask requirements more than eight months ago without a sharp uptick in hospitalizations as a result.
The CDC’s latest estimate through January 2022 show nearly 60 percent of kids have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2. Given the high level of transmissibility with Omicron, this number is much higher as we enter March 2022. Through vaccine and natural immunity, upward of 90 percent of kids likely have some level of immunity at this point. While vaccine and natural immunity have proven less capable of preventing future infections, their ability to lessen severe illness remain intact – similar to the flu shot.
Without any immunity, a child’s risk of severe illness falls much lower than during the preceding six flu seasons, a fact that has been evident since late 2020 as reported in BMJ Journal by Switzerland scientists.
Even natural immunity has become politicized to the detriment of our kids. The large SIREN study looked at more than 30,000 participants and showed those who recovered from COVID-19 had a statistically significant lower risk of reinfection up to seven months (the length of the trial) after their first infection. This paper was published April 2021, yet the CDC neglected its findings while moving forward with universal vaccine and booster mandates segregating the population unnecessarily.
Regardless of political affiliation, as it stands today, there is no denying the overwhelming data demonstrate COVID poses little risk to children, there is no proven benefit to kids wearing cloth masks, and natural immunity from SARS-CoV-2 offers protection from severe future COVID illness.
These are the facts. The science hasn’t miraculously changed in the last few months, but the situation has evolved as more people have become infected and been vaccinated.
There is a myriad of risks that our children face every day. Parenting is about balancing risks while allowing our kids to live life to the fullest.
The pandemic is fluid. As it morphs into an endemic pathogen with seasonal upticks, parents must shun the groupthink mentality that disallows actions and opinions to change as the situation morphs. Our public health leaders and policymakers should have led the charge to dissipate fear rather than invoke a perpetual state of panic neglecting data along the way.
There will never be a time when removal of face masks will be universally welcomed just as our children will never live a day with zero risk to their well-being. The emotional safety net for people who were calling for vaccines to be available before removing masks should have been pulled when school age children were eligible to be vaccinated last fall.
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Now, the CDC says people are tired, so they are recommending removal of masks to "give them a break."
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Americans don’t need "a break." What they deserve is an apology. The Biden administration’s role was to mitigate the crises caused by the pandemic and roll back restrictions as circumstances progressed. That is the opposite of what occurred.
Policies are finally changing because the CDC and the Biden administration are being called out for becoming an anti-science machine pushing forth outdated policy with little, if any, clinically significant benefit. The only thing Americans should hear from President Biden right now is "I’m sorry."
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