Most likely directly connected... Five schools close due to rising COVID cases in Alabama town that hosted Trump rally https://www.rawstory.com/cullman-trump/
This is part of an unfortunate environment facing teachers of younger children in elementary schools and day care centers... Younger children may be more likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2 than adolescents https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/ar...ikely-to-transmit-sars-cov-2-than-adolescents
Once again the U.K. and Europe are following WHO guidance when the prevailing rate of Covid in a community is low (under 5% positive test rate) then school classes can be held safely in person with minimal mitigation. When the prevailing rate of COVID rises to above the 5% positive test rate for 7 days then schools are generally shut down in a community/region and children go to remote learning. This is very different than the U.S. where we are trying to hold K-12 classes in-person with a positive community test rate above 18%. Schools need to use some form of mitigation if they want to stay in session for more than a week in this very high Covid spread environment -- the best mitigation is masks to stop spread in the classroom. All you have to do is look at the different experiences of K-12 schools which started the fall semester in the U.S. with masks with those who started without masks to see the glaring difference. Schools that started with masks are generally still in session without a level of Covid problems leading to school closures and/ or mass quarantines & cases. The practical reality however is that if your community spread is above 15% then it is just a matter of time until Covid drives your schools into having to go remote. Masks are buying you time -- after all the objective should be to keep children in-school for as long as possible to improve their education -- trying to minimize the time children spend remote. It is clear in-person education works better for K-12 children rather than remote education -- if masks allow this to happen for a longer period of time then every reasonable parent should be supporting using masks. Of course, I will note this Twitter post is from Kyle Lamb who is a huge purveyor of Covid misinformation who was hired by Ron DeSantis. Do we really need to outlines Kyle's history again?
Parents demand statewide remote learning options as COVID cases surge https://www.audacy.com/wbbm780/news/local/parents-demand-remote-learning-options-as-covid-surges
We will see what the judge decides in the this trial over school-system masks in Florida... 'We don’t live in a monarchy': Lawyers for DeSantis, parents duke it out on last day of mask mandate trial https://www.wesh.com/article/lawyers-desantis-parents-mask-mandate-trial/37408047#
Public schools have seen a massive drop in enrollment since the start of the pandemic https://www.cbsnews.com/news/public-schools-enrollment-drop-pandemic/
Very few parents complain about masks in schools. Most want masks used. Unfortunately those unhinged parents opposing masks in schools are a vocal minority. Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho On Masks: ‘We’ve Had 10 Parents File Complaints Out Of 300,000 Students’ https://miami.cbslocal.com/2021/08/...rents-file-complaints-out-of-300000-students/