With the highly contagious Delta variant spreading across the nation, the CDC on Tuesday reversed its earlier guidelines, recommending universal masking in K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. The American Academy of Pediatrics, too, advocates universal masking.
At the close of the last school year, Vermont dropped its mask mandate in schools and went as far as to tell districts not to impose their own during summer programs. Vermont has been reluctant thus far to reimpose restrictions, given the state’s high vaccination rate — 83.6% of eligible Vermonters as of Tuesday — and the relatively still modest share of Delta-related infections.
But calls are growing in the state’s medical community to reimpose masking in schools, and new state guidance for schools is expected in early August, and as early as next Tuesday.
“We’ll determine at that point what type of guidance we’re going to give,” Gov. Phil Scott said at a press conference Tuesday. “Obviously our state is, the school districts are locally controlled, so it’d be just that, guidance, and then they [school districts] will make their own decisions.”
Most, although not all, experts consulted by VTDigger said Vermont should reimpose universal masking in schools, even for vaccinated individuals.
And they were unanimous that the state needs to establish clear, universal guidelines. Some said mitigation measures could vary based on local conditions, but all agreed the thresholds themselves should come from the state.
“Schools are not well-positioned to make epidemiological decisions,” Anne Sosin, a policy fellow who studies rural health at Dartmouth College, said in a phone conversation Tuesday. “It puts schools in a very difficult position and they are subject to local preferences and willingness to adhere to [social distancing] measures.”
The state should adopt clear coronavirus control guidelines that include universal masking alongside measures such as vaccination promotion at school and routine coronavirus screenings, Sosin argued in a recent commentary. The piece’s co-authors were Annie Hoen, a Dartmouth epidemiologist, and Liz Winterbauer, a St. Michael’s College instructor and epidemiologist consulting on national COVID-19 testing efforts.
Vermont boasts the highest vaccination rate in the country. But just under 64% of 12-15-year-olds and 72% of 16-17-year-olds have gotten at least one shot, according to state data. Children under 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine, and federal regulatory approval for shots in younger kids is not expected until well after the school year starts.
And it is because of lower vaccination coverage in minors that the Vermont chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics has adopted the national organization’s stance, said Rebecca Bell, its president.
“If the priority of pediatricians and parents and educators and the community at large is to keep our kids in school — with minimal disruption … having everyone mask is the best, most practical way to add a really strong layer of protection when school starts again,” she said.
Influenza barely circulated last year, and school superintendents in Vermont have consistently reported that Covid-era protocols almost eliminated cold-and-flu season in schools. Bell, a pediatric critical care physician at the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital, said there were fewer kids in its ICU for respiratory viruses last year than she’d ever seen in her career.
Universal masking will have the added benefit of protecting vulnerable kids from the run-of-the-mill viruses that could make them seriously ill anyway, she argued. And it will keep adult school employees from needing to stay home with cold symptoms as they await the results of a Covid test.
“When we get to the real practical part of … minimizing school disruption, the other respiratory viruses play a big part. Because we really want symptomatic folks, you know, adults and students to stay home when they’re sick,” she said.
Universal masking in schools is the way to go, particularly in light of the highly transmissible Delta variant, said Benjamin Lee, an associate professor in the pediatrics department at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, who has conducted epidemiological research on Covid-19.
“We have to come to the recognition that the pandemic is not over. I think the vast majority of Vermonters will be very well protected against severe illness, but we still have a large group of susceptible people in our state. And that’s young children,” Lee said.
Keeping school employees and students at home if they have symptoms, Lee said, and a strong testing program should also remain cornerstones of school-based Covid mitigation techniques. Distancing is probably a “lower priority,” he added, and things like deep cleaning, plexiglass barriers, and temperature checks are of minimal, if any, use.
Tim Lahey, an infectious disease expert at the University of Vermont Medical Center, said the state’s infection rates are low enough that healthy vaccinated people do not need to wear masks. Even healthy, unvaccinated children may receive enough protection from the state’s current vaccination levels. That assessment may change, however, if the infection rate surges.
“It wouldn’t blow my mind if case counts rose enough that we’d need to pivot and say, ‘You know what? We were hoping not to do that stuff but we have to go to school the way it was last year,’” he said.
The organizations representing the state’s superintendents, principals, school boards and teachers have not yet taken a stance on what the state’s recommendations should include. But education officials said they eagerly await clear recommendations from the state.
“Guidance from the state, whether advisory or mandatory, works best when it is unambiguous, timely, science-based and conveyed in a manner such that school officials and the public alike can understand and follow it,” said Jeff Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association.
“We want the guidance to ensure the safest possible environment for students and school employees,” said Darren Allen, a spokesperson for the Vermont-National Educational Association. But he said the union would defer to the state’s public health authorities about what, specifically, that should entail.
“We are not the medical or epidemiological experts,” Allen said.
Pam McCarthy, president of the Vermont Family Network, which supports special needs families, urged the administration earlier this month to reinstate an indoor mask mandate, at least for the unvaccinated. Under current guidelines, she said, families had reported wildly inconsistent masking practices at summer school and child care programs.
“Our children under 12 are not protected and are exceptionally vulnerable until such time as vaccinations are approved for young children. Immunocompromised children might never be able to receive the vaccination,” McCarthy wrote in a letter dated July 12. “We implore you to implement clear and consistent guidance for children in school and child care facilities.”
In Canaan, Kate Larose, parent of an 8-year-old immune-compromised son, wrote to Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine earlier this summer after the school mask mandate was dropped.
Her son would not be able to attend summer programs, she said, since, absent a requirement from the state, both students and school staff had nearly universally jettisoned their masks. (Canaan is in Essex County, which, at 58.5%, has the lowest vaccination rates in the state.)
Levine expressed sympathy, suggesting in an emailed response that parents, students and teachers should be “given the chance to be able to weigh in on perhaps adhering to indoor masking when your son is present.”
And that’s what Larose did, writing into a community forum. The responses she received from fellow parents “made me not want to be a member of this community anymore. It was horrible,” she said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Larose’s son ultimately received about eight hours of summer programming after the special education administrator could identify only two teachers willing to mask when interacting with him. Other kids got four weeks.
“Telling parents, especially parents of kids with disabilities, that they alone need to be the ones advocating for equity is not OK,” Larose said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified The American Academy of Pediatrics.
