While the future of Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order lifting a mask mandate in schools will be argued in court, school districts are now operating under new guidance from the state’s Department of Health and Department of Education.
The 14-page “Interim Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in Virginia PreK-12 Schools,” begins with three core principles:
- Parents are in charge of their children’s health, well-being and education;
- Schools must be open five days a week for in-person learning, and
- The Commonwealth and school divisions must provide a safe and healthy school environment.
Dr. Colin Greene, Virginia’s acting state health commissioner, told WTOP that the evolving nature of the coronavirus and its variants means that guidance will continue to evolve.
“Mitigation strategies that reduce COVID-19 transmission can be reduced now that effective vaccines are available, and the current predominant variant (Omicron) is causing less severe disease,” according to the new guidance.
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Vaccinations have been, and will be the key to keeping school children and staff safe during COVID, said Greene.
“It’s keeping people from having the worst outcomes — hospitalization and death, from COVID-19,” Greene said. “It’s actually the one intervention that continues to be effective during this new phase of the Omicron variant.”
Dr. John Farrell, a pediatrician and chairman of the Loudoun County Health Commission, which provides recommendations to the county’s Board of Supervisors, told WTOP: “There’s some good focus there on trying to end this pandemic, a real focus on continuing to promote vaccination, because I see that as the way we get out of this thing.”
Farrell said the highly-contagious Omicron variant is prompting him to offer new thoughts to his patients regarding masking in school.
“Here we are, in Jan. 2022, trying to weather the storm of a new variant that seems to evade our immunity regardless of immunization status or previous infections,” Farrell wrote in a post on his practice’s website. “Although it is thankfully so much milder in the vaccinated and/or previously infected.”
While several school jurisdictions in Northern Virginia have said they will continue to require masks despite Youngkin’s executive order, Greene said public health findings suggest current mitigation procedures in school aren’t slowing cases during Omicron, even with school systems where masking has been mandatory.
“Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax County, Loudoun County were the ones that saw 20-fold increases,” said Greene. “With Omicron, it’s not nearly so clear that masking, and for that matter, distancing, are quite as effective.”
Greene and Farrell agree that cloth masks provide little, or no protection.
According to the new K-12 guidance: “The CDC presently recommends the use of N95 or KN95 masks to reduce COVID transmission, but such masks are very tight and uncomfortable, and may be poorly tolerated by children. During the Omicron outbreak, regions with restrictive masking policies and practices have shown similar rates of transmission as regions with less restrictive mask policies.”
Greene said the lack of proven benefits supports letting parents choose whether their children should wear masks.
“It’s a risk and benefit — if you’re going to make interventions, you want to use interventions that are likely to be helpful,” said Greene. “Again, there are negative aspects [to mask wearing] — it’s a balance.”
Farrell doesn’t entirely disagree: “I think the people who don’t want to mask, I’m not saying I disagree with you. There is a right time. It’s just not now.”
Farrell said with hospitals and emergency rooms overwhelmed, and staffing challenges in medical facilities and schools due to COVID illness and quarantines: “Now is not the time to eliminate mandates against masks, and I know the word mandate comes with a lot of emotion.”
Both the Virginia and National American Academy of Pediatrics continue to recommend masking as a mitigation strategy.
Regarding whether now is the proper time to stop masking, Greene said: “It’s a reasonable question that they ask, because particularly inpatient beds are stressed out to the max, and they’re full and over-full.”
The first line of the executive summary of the new guidance reads: “There is no greater priority than the health and welfare of Virginia’s children, and parents have the fundamental right to make decisions concerning the care of their children.”
While individual school systems which are maintaining mask requirements have stated how they will respond if a child doesn’t wear a mask, Farrell hopes the interaction will be civil.
“Principals are definitely in a bind, they have to follow rules,” said Farrell. “I implore parents at this time to not make the administrators force this choice.”
Farrell and Greene both believe the Omicron variant has peaked, and that local school systems will get past the stress of the current situation.
“When it comes to schools, we have to recognize the virus is the enemy, and our goal is to keep the kids in school, five days a week,” Farrell said.
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Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | D.C.
