Middlesex County is again high risk for Covid; schools, Public Health and Somerville take note
Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, left, and Meryl Brott from the Department of Public Works visited the Amigos and Cambridgeport schools Tuesday to talk about recycling. (Photo: Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui via Twitter)
With Covid-19 cases continuing to rise, the Cambridge Public Health Department on Monday called for indoor masking more forcefully than before, and school superintendent Victoria L. Greer said the district is “encouraging our entire school community to mask, particularly when we are indoors.”
The messages came as infections and hospitalizations brought Middlesex County into the high-transmission category under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definitions; on Thursday, the City of Somerville noted the change to residents with a texted and emailed message that “strongly urges that you wear a high-quality mask when indoors in public.”
Cambridge’s health department “strongly recommends that residents wear a mask when indoors outside the home,” according to a press release. The masking advice follows CDC guidance; the department also repeated the rest of the agency’s advice for people in high-transmission counties, including getting recommended Covid vaccinations, getting tested “if you have symptoms” and staying home if you’re sick. People at high risk of serious illness from the virus should take more precautions, the department said.
On Monday, the health department reported 304 new cases from Friday, Saturday and Sunday combined; Cambridge moved to daily data reports from Monday to Friday starting Saturday. Health officials in Cambridge and elsewhere in the country have said that reported case numbers are probably understating infections because more people are testing themselves at home and most of those results don’t go to public health departments.
The school district said its new guidance was “due to an increase in the number of Covid cases and Covid-related hospitalizations within our community.”
The health department message repeats and intensifies slightly one from April 22, when the department applauded the fact that many residents continue to mask up, saying: “The Cambridge Public Health Department strongly supports this practice!” It recommended that people “wear a mask when indoors outside your own home, including on public transportation.”
The last week that CPSD had masking required (Mar 7-13th) there were 10 COVID cases in the schools. After that masking became optional… and last week there were at least 118 cases. That’s almost a 1,100% increase.
(Source: https://www.cpsd.us/covid19data)
Community cases almost certainly did not increase that much, so this is likely due to masking being optional. It’s a little strange that the school district didn’t realize this was going to happen when they made masking optional and told the parents that all choices are good choices.
^^^^ Guess Siddiqui didn’t get the memo? Or did she know it would be a photo op?
#priorities
There is no clear evidence that masks are effective at reducing spread in schools, as this Atlantic article discusses:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/kids-masks-schools-weak-science/621133/
A study from Spain “found that there were no significant differences in transmission between the over-sixes, who must wear face-coverings, and the under-sixes, who are exempt from the rule.”
https://english.elpais.com/society/2022-03-11/masks-in-schools-are-not-associated-with-lower-coronavirus-transmission-says-new-study.html?outputType=amp
There could be dozens of explanations for why cases among students at CPS have increased at a greater rate than the larger community, from random chance to more testing of kids.
Setting aside the efficacy of masks for a moment, we should consider whether it’s good for children to wear masks, especially those under 10. There’s a reason the European CDC recommends against masking in elementary school. The WHO recommends masking kids under six. For 6 to 11 year olds, the WHO cautions against masking due to the “potential impact of wearing a mask on learning and psychosocial development.”
Every kid over the age of four has had an opportunity to get vaccinated. Covid waves are going to be a feature of our lives for a long time. We know that kids are at extremely low risk of severe illness. If we don’t ditch masks now, when would we?
* The WHO recommends AGAINST masking kids under six.
Itamar if you’re suggesting the removal of the mandate directly resulted in the case surge what was happening from September ’21 through February ’22 when we had a mask mandate from late August through mid march (and slightly beyond for some venues)? Maybe correlation isn’t causation here or maybe its got to do with more than just one mitigation or lack thereof? I can’t slight Sumbul for not wearing a mask in that picture though it is very … hmmm … democrat? to wear a mask around masked kids. The optic isn’t great but the mask mandate is gone (as it should be) and people can wear an N95 or K94 which seem to be the only mask that provides any real protection should they choose to.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/mandatory-masking-schools-reduced-covid-19-cases-during-delta-surge
“ Schools with mandatory masking during the Delta surge had approximately 72% fewer cases of in-school transmission of SARS-CoV-2 when compared to schools with optional or partial masking policies, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study included more than 1.1 million students and over 157,000 staff attending in-person school across nine states: North Carolina, Wisconsin, Missouri, California, Washington, Georgia, Tennessee, Kansas and Texas.”
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/mandatory-masking-schools-reduced-covid-19-cases-during-delta-surge
My niece’s high school in Florida has had 65 cases the entire school year. And they have been unmasked since school started in the fall. And all the stores, restaurants, etc. are fully unmasked. If not wearing a mask is so dangerous, why hasn’t Florida been decimated by Covid?
“ Schools where face coverings were used in October 2021 saw a reduction two to three weeks later in Covid absences from 5.3% to 3% – a drop of 2.3 percentage points.
In schools which did not use face coverings absences fell from 5.3% to 3.6% – a fall of 1.7 percentage points.
It said this was not statistically significant and the greater reduction in schools where masks were worn could be down to chance.
The review also acknowledges the use of face coverings could harm learning.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59895934.amp