Updated CDC schools guidance prioritizes in-person learning, even if all Covid-19 safety measures aren't in place https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/09/health/cdc-covid-schools-guidance-update/index.html The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday updated its Covid-19 schools guidance to emphasize in-person schooling is a priority in the fall, regardless of whether all mitigation measures can be implemented. As K-12 schools will have a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated people, the agency says it's still necessary to layer strategies such as masking and physical distancing, and most importantly, vaccinations for everyone eligible -- people age 12 and older. Students, teachers and staff who are fully vaccinated do not need to wear masks at school. For those who aren't vaccinated or aren't eligible, consistent, correct masking remains an important safety measure, the agency said. The CDC says its guidance does not replace local guidance and policies. Schools that are ready to transition away from pandemic precautions should do so gradually, the agency said, as community transmission reaches low levels. "If localities decide to remove prevention strategies in schools based on local conditions, they should remove them one at a time and monitor closely (with adequate testing) for any increases in COVID-19 cases before removing the next prevention strategy," the guidance says, adding that schools need to be transparent with families, staff and the community as they do so. Vaccines and masks The CDC suggests schools take steps to promote Covid-19 vaccination, including offering vaccines on site, providing paid sick leave for employees to get vaccinated and excusing absences for students to get vaccinated. Covid-19 vaccines are currently available for people ages 12 and older in the US. While the vaccinated can go without a mask, the agency recommends unvaccinated people over the age of 2 wear masks when indoors. In general, people don't need to wear masks outdoors, but in areas with high coronavirus transmission, people who aren't fully vaccinated may still want to wear them in some circumstances. "Consistent and correct mask use by people who are not fully vaccinated is especially important indoors and in crowded settings, when physical distancing cannot be maintained," the CDC notes. Based on local conditions -- for example, in a school where students aren't yet eligible for vaccines or in an area with high transmission -- schools can still opt to require universal masking, even for those who are vaccinated. And, the CDC says, schools should still support vaccinated people who choose to wear a mask. Layers of protection The CDC guidance details layers of ways schools can prevent spread while staying open for in-person learning: "Screening testing, ventilation, handwashing and respiratory etiquette, staying home when sick and getting tested, contact tracing in combination with quarantine and isolation, and cleaning and disinfection are also important layers of prevention to keep schools safe." Physical distancing should be practiced in schools where not everyone is vaccinated, it said, but students should not be excluded from in-person learning in order to maintain physical distancing. Anyone experiencing symptoms that could be Covid-19 or flu should get tested, and stay home if they're sick. The guidance says unvaccinated people who were exposed to Covid-19 should quarantine, but fully vaccinated people who don't have symptoms do not need to quarantine or get tested after an exposure to a person with Covid-19. Cohorting -- keeping people in small groups that stay together throughout the day -- can be useful to limit contacts, but it doesn't replace other key safety measures, the agency says. Cohorting people who are and are not vaccinated separately is not recommended. The agency advises close monitoring of Covid-19 transmission, vaccination coverage, screening testing and outbreaks when making decisions about the prevention strategies needed in their area. In a White House Covid-19 briefing on Friday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky sounded the alarm about "new and concerning trends" in cases and hospitalizations in areas with low levels of vaccination. "Simply put, in areas of low vaccination coverage, cases and hospitalizations are up," Walensky said. "Further, we are seeing some small clusters and larger outbreaks of Covid-19 in locations such as camps and community events where proper, hard-learned prevention strategies are not enforced and the virus is readily able to thrive."
Summer camps hit with COVID outbreaks -- are schools next? https://www.wral.com/summer-camps-hit-with-covid-outbreaks-are-schools-next/19769047/ The U.S. has seen a string of COVID-19 outbreaks tied to summer camps in recent weeks in places such as Texas, Illinois, Florida, Missouri and Kansas, in what some fear could be a preview of the upcoming school year. In some cases the outbreaks have spread from the camp to the broader community. The clusters have come as the number of newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. has reversed course, surging more than 60% over the past two weeks from an average of about 12,000 a day to around 19,500, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The rise in many places has been blamed on too many unvaccinated people and the highly contagious delta variant. Gwen Ford, a 43-year-old science teacher from Adrian, Missouri, was cautiously optimistic when she eyed the dropping case numbers in the spring and signed up her 12-year-old daughter for the West Central Christian Service Camp. But one day after the girl got home from a week of playing in the pool, worshipping with friends and bunking in a dormitory, Ford got an email about an outbreak and then learned that her daughter's camp buddy was infected. “It was very nerve-wracking. It kind of seems like we finally felt comfortable and it happened," Ford said, adding that her daughter ultimately tested negative. Ford said she definitely plans to get her daughter vaccinated but hadn't done so because there wasn't much time between the start of camp and the government's authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds in May. A note posted on the camp’s Facebook page showed that the camp nurse and several other staff members and volunteers were among those infected. Staff members at the camp did not return a call for comment. JoAnn Martin, administrator of the public health agency in surrounding Pettis County, lamented the difficulty in getting people to take the virus seriously and get vaccinated. “It has been a challenge since the first case," she said. “You have people who still say it is not real. You have people who say it is a cold. You have people who say what is the big deal. You have people who say it is all a government plot." Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious disease specialist, said he isn't surprised by the outbreaks as camps reopen this year after being closed last summer. He said he had his doubts that some camps “thought through all the implications of camping during COVID.” Ideally, he said, camps would require vaccinations for adults and for campers who are old enough, and would take other measures such as serving meals in shifts, putting fewer youngsters in the cabins and requiring anyone unvaccinated to wear masks indoors. In the Houston area, health officials reported more than 130 youths and adults tested positive for the virus in cases connected to a church camp. The pastor of Clear Creek Community Church in League City said the outbreak happened in two waves, first at the camp and then when people returned home in late June. “In some cases, entire families are sick,” pastor Bruce Wesley said on the church’s Facebook page. In Illinois, health officials said 85 teens and adults at a Christian youth camp in mid-June tested positive, including an unvaccinated young adult who was hospitalized, and some people from the camp attended a nearby conference, leading to 11 additional cases. The Illinois Department of Public Health said all the campers were eligible for the vaccine, but only “a handful” of campers and staff had received it. The camp didn’t check people's vaccination status or require masks indoors, according to the department. The health department in Leon County, Florida, which includes Tallahassee, tweeted this month that an increase in cases there also was tied in part to summer camp outbreaks. And in Kansas, about 50 people have been infected in an outbreak linked to a church summer camp held last month not far from Wichita. Elsewhere the situation is better. The roughly 225 overnight camps and thousands of day camps run by local YMCAs are mostly open this summer, though with slightly reduced capacity, said Paul McEntire, chief operating officer for YMCA of the USA. McEntire said he is aware of a few cases of Y camps where people tested positive for the virus, but no instances of significant spread. He said many camps are taking precautions such as serving meals in shifts or outside and trying to keep youngsters in separate groups. Most are requiring masks indoors, but he acknowledged it can be a challenge. “To be frank, there are some parents that didn’t want to send their kids unless they were assured that masking was being used indoors," he said. “There were others that took the exact opposite viewpoint.” Ahead of the school year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance last week to say vaccinated teachers and students don’t need to wear masks inside and 3-foot distancing of desks is not necessary for the fully vaccinated. Summer camp outbreaks “certainly could be a precursor’’ to what happens when youngsters return to classrooms in the fall, said Dr. Michelle Prickett, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. The outcome will depend on vaccination rates and which virus variants are prevalent, she said. “We just need to be vigilant,’’ Prickett said. Schaffner said he thinks schools won’t face similar outbreaks because they tend to be more structured and disciplined than camps and because most got used to making adjustments over the past year and a half. But he said the best way to reduce the risk is to get most people vaccinated. “There are many parts of the country that simply have not grasped this,’’ he said. It could be several months before regulators make a decision on authorizing shots for children under 12. Studies on such youngsters are still going on. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, the state's top vaccination official was fired Monday after facing scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers over her department’s outreach efforts to vaccinate teenagers against COVID-19. Dr. Michelle Fiscus told The Tennessean newspaper about her termination. A Health Department official said the agency would not comment. The Department of Health instructed county-level employees recently to stop vaccination events aimed at teens and to halt any online outreach to them, The Tennessean previously reported, citing emails it obtained. Ford, the teacher whose daughter narrowly escaped getting COVID-19 at a Missouri summer camp, is worried. “With the uptick in cases, I am concerned that we won’t be able to go back to normal, and we will have to ask people to mask and stuff,” she said, "and I have a feeling that there is going to be a huge argument.”
Christians never wanted to follow the protocols last year and now crying because their Jesus camps got infected?
It is proof that they do not really believe in their savior. If they did, they would know that Jesus is the answer to all their prayers. Blasphemers.
Young children will pay the price if enough US adults don't get vaccinated against Covid-19, expert says https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/14/health/us-coronavirus-wednesday/index.html
More kids are being hospitalized with COVID. Experts say we need to vaccinate more people, and use masks in schools. https://www.businessinsider.com/more-kids-hospitalized-covid-masks-vaccines-protect-children-2021-7
Permanent lockdown types are setting the stage for no school this fall. Teachers union, especially those in shitholes like Chicago and LA have no desire to go back in that classroom. Can't say as I blame them considering they are basically playing correction officer for juvenile delinquents, but it's the job they signed up for.
American Academy of Pediatrics recommends universal masking in schools for everyone older than 2 https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/19/us/aap-open-schools-covid/index.html The American Academy of Pediatrics released new Covid-19 guidance for schools on Monday that supports in-person learning and, among other things, recommends universal masking in school of everyone over the age of 2. "The AAP believes that, at this point in the pandemic, given what we know about low rates of in-school transmission when proper prevention measures are used, together with the availability of effective vaccines for those age 12 years and up, that the benefits of in-person school outweigh the risks in all circumstances," the guidance says. One of the main interventions put forward by the AAP includes that all students over the age of 2 and all school staff should wear masks at school unless they have a medical or developmental condition that prohibits this. Reasons for this recommendation include, but are not limited to: a significant proportion of the student population not yet being eligible for vaccination; masking protecting those who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 and reducing transmission; and potential difficulty in monitoring or enforcing mask policies for those who are not vaccinated. Additionally, other actions recommended by AAP include that all eligible individuals get vaccinated; that adequate and timely testing resources are available; and that strategies that are developed can be revised and adapted depending on the situation in the community. "With the above principles in mind, the AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for school COVID-19 plans should start with a goal of keeping students safe and physically present in school," the guidance says. "The importance of in-person learning is well-documented, and there is already evidence of the negative impacts on children because of school closures in 2020."