Epidemiologist takes issue with how Randi Weingarten and the CDC used her study of COVID transmission in schools

AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

I’m not sure why Randi Weingarten has decided this week is the moment for her to retcon the history of her involvement in school closures during the pandemic. I’m assuming this has something to do with setting teacher’s unions up to help Democrats in 2024, i.e. dump the baggage now so you can claim this is old news nexe year.

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The problem for Weingarten is that the history she’s trying to rewrite is a little too recent and too vivid for many parents. Her claims that she was all about reopening schools from the start of the pandemic just don’t jibe with reality and there are lots of quotes out there to show that’s the case.

David did a whole post about this yesterday so I’m not going to rehash all of that again, but today I came across a Twitter thread which directly contradicts some of the claims Weingarten was making during her testimony yesterday. The author of the thread is Dr. Tracy Hoeg, an epidemiologist who did a pivotal study of Wisconsin schools which was published by the CDC in January 2021. Randi Weingarten actually name-checked her during her testimony.

Next she talks about a graphic that the CDC created which was supposedly based on the conclusions of her Wisconsin study (she was the senior author). Notice the graphic below says that Wisconsin schools “used masks” to limit the spread. But as Dr. Hoeg points out, the study itself offered no guidance on masks because it had no control group without masks.

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In fact, there was some evidence from Europe that masks weren’t necessary in schools.

The CDC graphic also talked about social distancing but if you click that link above you’ll find that “89.3% of elementary students included in our study did not maintain 6 feet of physical distancing in the classroom and 94.8% were within 6 feet in lunchrooms.” In other words, social distancing was not maintained. The authors concluded:

In the setting of high community COVID-19 disease transmission, 6 feet of distance between elementary students and major ventilation system renovations in primary or secondary schools do not appear to be necessary to minimize disease spread. Requiring masks at recess and prohibiting bussing also appears unnecessary. These findings may inform guidance on the safe reopening of schools and allow for more children to return to in-person schooling.

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In short, all of the things that Weingarten and her union were demanding (including expensive new ventilations systems) in order to reopen schools were not necessary.

Also, Weingarten’s claim that Dr. Hoeg was complimentary about what she and her union were doing wasn’t accurate.

I watched Dr. Hoeg’s statement in that clip and it’s basically a long list of evidence that schools should reopen and that masking of young children is not needed. But it’s clear that Weingarten didn’t get it. In fact, after Hoe’s statement Weingarten thanked her for her study which she said helped her think through her approach, including masking in schools. But again, the study in question didn’t provide any evidence for or against masking.

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In other words, Dr. Hoeg and her study were never on the side of Randi Weingarten or the teacher’s unions but it seems that Weingarten never understood that and still doesn’t.

CNN had Weingarten on today and she was confronted by commentator Scott Jennings who really let her have it for trying to claim she was always about opening schools. As Jennings put it, “You’ll find that most parents believe you were the tip of the spear of school closures.”

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