The other question is: Will a change in guidance on indoor masking be accompanied by an easing of mask requirements and other measures for school children? Even though CDC guidance is not legally binding, it is heavily influential in liberal school districts.
To date, the trend of de-masking has left children behind in many blue areas, such as D.C. As of March 1, people in the nation’s capital will be able to go into crowded bars and restaurants and even attend indoor sporting events without masks, but school children there will be forced to wear them all day. This is especially troubling given that children are at much lower risk than adults of getting seriously sick from Covid. And it is cruel given the evidence that masking in schools is doing more harm than good.
On this front, recent comments made by Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, may hint where the CDC will end up, given the significant financial and political influence of teachers’ unions on the Biden administration.
Weingarten recently called on the CDC to update its school masking guidance, and she offered an off-ramp, pointing to the standard that has been adopted in Massachusetts and Maryland: Mask mandates may be lifted when the vaccination rate at the county or school level exceeds 80 percent.
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