School superintendents in six counties jointly announced their support Friday for full in-person classes for the entirety of the 2021-2022 school year.
The announcement came from superintendents in Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Alameda counties in addition to the city of Berkeley and aligns with guidance from the California Department of Public Health that encourages schools across the state to reopen with modifications.
The officials also advised all students age 12 and up to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they have yet to do so. Under state public health guidelines, students will be required to wear a face covering when indoors regardless of their vaccination status.
“We highly encourage our students to take advantage of vaccination opportunities and universally wearing their masks,” Contra Costa County Superintendent Lynn Mackey said in a statement. “These strategies are proven to be the most effective way to prevent in-school transmission of the COVID-19 virus and its variants.”
State public health and education officials have yet to mandate that eligible students get vaccinated against COVID-19 before they return to school.
They have, however, hinted that such a mandate will be considered once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issues its full approval of the three available vaccines.
Similar vaccination mandates already exist for communicable illnesses like measles and whooping cough unless a child has a documented exemption from a doctor.
“It is important for all students to have access to a safe learning environment, and universal mask-wearing and the COVID-19 vaccine are proven to be the two most effective mitigation strategies in preventing in-school transmission of the coronavirus and its variants,” Santa Clara County Superintendent Mary Ann Dewan said.
Most redundant position in all of education. The invisibility has not gone unnoticed.
Time to end the absurd practice of having elementary school age children wear masks. Vulnerable adults should all be vaccinated by now, so the argument that we need to mask kids to protect grandma no longer applies.
From a health perspective, only children with serious immune problems (like cancer) have any risk from infection. Data shows clearly Covid-19, including the Delta variant, are much less likely than the flu to cause serious illness for anyone under the age of 20.
So Michael,how many PICU Covid patients are there?
Speaking of information pulled out of a nether orifice, there is no good data on the efficacy of mask mandates for young kids. And no good data on the downsides for language learning and development. The WHO does not recommend masking kids under 6. And yet American kids in pre-school are facing basically indefinite masking for something that for them is about as dangerous as the flu.
@Michael Hunt
Oh, I don’t know….I thought what “Always Right” posted sounded pretty accurate, as I’ve heard the same. According to physicians and other health experts, children without underlying conditions should not be masked. And that wasn’t a statement that came out of the lower region.
100% agree with you Always Right. The lunacy and fear mongering here is bizarre at best.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7821981/
ZERO deaths under age 18
https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboard/#todays-update
Michael- about the same number always in there for various reasons, including the flu? So, nice try there.
@ Michael…. OK if we call you Mike? I’m sure alot of us are already.
@Dr. Jellyfinger..…good one. Well, has anyone seen him?
Over 80% of the new cases are the Delta Variant. Studies in the UK shows people 50 and under are 2.5 times more likely to get it. Younger kids are now getting hospitalized with serious symptoms. Students with disabilities, diabetes, asthma and various auto immune disorders are at a higher risk as well. Everyone is entitled to a free and appropriate education and to be safe at school healthy or unhealthy.
I’m not a fan of wearing a mask. I’m not a scientist or health professionals but if you look at the data before mask mandates our COVID cases were really low. Since the lifting of the mask mandate cases have increased. Makes me feel like the masks were doing something.
It’s too confounded with other changes to draw that conclusion. In some other states cases dropped like a rock starting in January while all kids were in school with no masks. Too many factors in play to put that much weight on masks. It’s probably more important how good or bad ventilation is, and whether cooks and factory and agricultural workers have sick leave and a place to quarantine … all of that is almost surely more important than whether low risk people wear cloth masks or not.
Belairium: UK studies also show that the majority of hospitalizations and deaths are from those that are fully vaccinated.
Certain vaccines have a history of doing more harm then good, especially those that are rushed and coerced upon the public. Polio, Swine flu and Anthrax vaccinations are recent examples.
Exactly. You are not a scientist or a health care professional. Therefore, you don’t fully know how to consume data unless you have taken a course or it is part of your work. The “data” is very misleading because they can manipulate stats to show almost whatever they want. The media knows this and that is why sensational headlines sell…
Could someone provide information on the delta test? I’m having trouble figuring out how they differentiate between COVID, the flu, and delta. I have looked everywhere for an explanation but so far nothing.
@Yoyo Hop,
Per Reuters:
“Fact Check-England’s COVID-19 death statistics do not suggest vaccines aren’t working…Vaccinated individuals are not at higher risk of dying from the Delta variant. The Public Health England figures cited in a blogpost have been taken out of context.”
https://tinyurl.com/2p8ra3ut
If you read the entire article you might learn something. On the other hand, why let facts get in the way of a good panic.
The COVID test for nucleic acid (i.e. PCR) tests for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid so it will detect the older strains of COVID as well as the delta variant (Delta is not another virus it is just a variant). You can sequence the nucleic acid and see whether it is the delta variant or maybe even a new mutant.
The COVID nucleic acid test do not detect influenza, however there are now newer tests that in the same test do test for both COVID and influenza. The signal detected for COVID vs influenza is different so you know whether it is positive for COVID, influenza or both. These tests are called multiplex. There are other multiplex tests used in blood banks that can simultaneously test for HIV and HCV in donor blood.
@Oh, please…..Belairium stayed in a Holiday Inn last night and has his medical degree from UOG(University of Google), like a jillion other people that know it all, not naming names.
No vaxx for us. We are in a charter homeschool school so we learn at home already, but if they mandate the poison jabs, we’re out. No biggie, but we will have to pay for our own curriculum. A few hundred per year will do it.
I really fear for all the youngsters getting this vaxx. Its criminal how it is being pushed on a population that doesn’t need it and is at the greatest risk of unknown long term effects. Shame on big pharma, Fauci and the crooked CDC, teachers unions, and liberal leaders.
Good job. That’s exactly what everyone needs to do.
They’ll be getting rid of those six shortly.
The unions will insist on another year of shut downs. If Newsom survives the recall he will bloviate that science and data demand another shut down. That’s why he moved his own recall up to September 14th. He didn’t want to announce bad news prior to the vote.
As the TV ad says, “Gavin Newsom is just getting started”.
Recall this corrupt Governor before he causes any more damage.