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MASKS BACK
ON FOR ALL SCHOOLS, MOST ILLINOISANS, PUBLIC HEALTH LEADERS RECOMMEND
Illinois Policy Institute/
Noah Shaar
Illinois public health administrators
joined the CDC’s calls for masks in all elementary and high schools,
although school districts have the final say. They recommend most
Illinoisans, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status, should be
masking in indoor public spaces. |
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 The Illinois Department of Public Health announced it was
adopting new, stricter masking guidelines issued by the federal government,
which call for universal masking at schools even for vaccinated students and
staff.
IDPH was also asking for indoor masking of the general public in areas of
substantial or high COVID-19 transmission. By their definition, that is almost
all of Illinois.
As of Aug. 1, vaccinated residents of only seven counties scattered across
Illinois would be able to go mask-free indoors because transmission was no more
than “moderate,” or fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 people during the prior
week. Residents in the rest of Illinois’ 102 counties should be masked in public
indoor settings, they recommended.
The state guidance follows U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
updates issued July 27. Illinois’ statewide transmission rate averaged nearly 72
people per 100,000 during the week ending Aug. 1, ranking transmission as
“substantial.” There were 65 counties ranked as “high” transmission of over 100
cases per 100,000 people during the prior week and 30 counties as “substantial”
for 50 to 100 cases.
These moves by the CDC and the IDPH are only recommendations.
Each school district’s leadership makes the final call about mask policies.
Chicago Public Schools already announced a mask mandate for all people this
fall. A school district in Oswegoelected to go mask optional. The Madison County
Board, doubling as the County Public Health Board, urgedlocal school districts
to make masks optional.
IDPH originally issued vague guidance on school masks July 9 that Gov. J.B.
Pritzker had to clarify July 13. Pritzker’s spokeswoman stated school boards
have the final say on mask policies, and the public health recommendations were
“not a mask mandate.”
Three of Illinois’ neighboring states are opening schools without statewide mask
mandates.
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Many parents argue their children’s health is their
responsibility, and some educators and experts question the
developmental and emotional impacts from masking young students.
“Students with significant behavioral challenges
and some of our medically fragile students with physical handicaps
often cannot wear a mask or keep them on their faces independently,”
said Kim Breust Neilson, a school social worker in Lake in the
Hills, Illinois. “COVID-19 restrictions and masking policies
completely go against what we have taught kids for decades about
cooperation and have disproportionately affected these special needs
populations and left them without appropriate services.”\
The CDC advised all teachers, students and staff in every K-12
school to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status. The new
guidelines come as various states suffer outbreaks of the new
COVID-19 Delta variant.
Public health leaders are also warning of the Delta variant’s higher
transmissibility: it spreads twice as easilyas previous strains, the
CDC and IDPH stated. Scientists also worry about “breakthrough
infections,” with vaccinated people falling ill with the new strain.
The IDPH reported 169 deaths and 644 hospitalizations from
“breakthrough infections.”
“While data continues to show the effectiveness of the three
COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized in the U.S., including
against the Delta variant, we are still seeing the virus rapidly
spread among the unvaccinated,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike,
in a press release. “Until more people are vaccinated, we join CDC
in recommending everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear a
mask indoors in areas of substantial and high transmissions, and in
K-12 schools.”
As of Aug. 2, about 73% of eligible Illinoisans have had one dose of
a COVID-19 vaccine and 57% were fully vaccinated. |
