All school children, staff should continue to wear masks

All U.S. students, faculty, and staff should wear masks when they are in school, regardless of their immunization status, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said Monday.

This guide runs counter to recommendations released by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month: these guidelines say vaccinated teachers and students can enter schools without masks, while unvaccinated ones should to continue wearing them to protect against the coronavirus.

The CDC did not offer suggestions on how teachers can know which students are vaccinated or how parents will know which teachers are vaccinated. The most important issues will be a middle schools where some students are eligible for firing and others are not. If classifying vaccinated and unvaccinated students is too difficult, administrators could choose to keep a masking policy in place for everyone, the CDC said then.

“Most of us don’t like to wear a mask. Let’s face it,” said Dr. Michael Grosso, president of pediatrics at Northwell Health’s Huntington Hospital in Huntington, New York.

“But it’s hard not to like the new direction of the American Academy of Pediatrics. First, kids have to go back to school, face to face, and the AAP is promoting it. That’s important for everyone. children, and even more so for children with learning problems. It is important for learning, socialization, physical fitness and mental health, ”he said.

“Second, most schoolchildren are not vaccinated, at least for now, and will remain so until studies are completed and we have authorization for the use of vaccines in younger people,” Grosso added. “This will take a while longer. At the moment, unvaccinated children need the protection that comes with masking everyone at school.”

Despite the fact that children are less likely than adults to have severe COVID, they are at risk for MIS-C, which affects about 1 in 600 infected children and adolescents, Grosso said. “This multisystem inflammatory disease, which follows the primary infection for several weeks, is extremely severe and often results in the need for intensive pediatric care,” he noted.

In addition to recommending masking for all, the latest AAP guidelines state that all eligible individuals should be vaccinated against COVID-19, strongly recommends face-to-face learning, and advises schools to prepare for to the mental health needs of students.

“We need to prioritize children going back to schools alongside their friends and teachers, and we all have an important role to play in making sure it happens safely,” said Dr. Sonja O’Leary, chair of the Board of Trustees. AAP School Health.

“The pandemic has affected children in a heartbreaking way and not only has their education suffered, but their mental, emotional and physical health,” O’Leary said in an AAP press release. “The combination of protective layers that include vaccines, masking and clean hand hygiene will make in-person learning safe and possible for everyone.”

Universal masking is necessary because a significant portion of students are not yet eligible for vaccines, and masking has been shown to reduce virus transmission and protect those who are not vaccinated, according to the AAP.

In addition, many schools will not be able to monitor the vaccine status of students, teachers, and staff, and the virus may be more prevalent in communities with low vaccination rates.

“There are many children and others who cannot be vaccinated,” said Dr. Sara Bode, elected chair of the executive committee of the AAP School Health Council.

“That’s why it’s important to use all the tools in our toolkit to protect children from COVID-19. Universal masking is one of those tools and has been shown to be effective in protecting people from other diseases. respiratory, ”Bode said on release. “It’s also the most effective strategy to create consistent messages and expectations among students without the added burden of the need to monitor everyone’s immunization status. ”

The AAP guidelines echo the CDC’s recommendations for ventilation, testing, quarantine, cleaning, and disinfection of the school building.

Safety precautions are highly effective when used consistently and children are at greater risk of suffering mental health problems and setbacks in development if lostschool learning, according to AAP.

It is also crucial that children are caught in all regular vaccines, including the flu vaccine, the AAP said.

“The last thing we want when we get out of this pandemic is an outbreak of another vaccine-preventable disease,” O’Leary said.

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