Joseph G. Allen, an associate professor and director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has an op-ed out in the Washington Post calling that argues “schools should do away with mask mandates by the end of the year.”
His argument is based on what’s known as math:
"It's time to set firm dates for ending masking in schools," Joseph G. Allen writes. He shares a remarkable stat: "In highly vaccinated New England, the hospitalization rate right now for kids under 17 is about 7 per 10 million. That is not a typo." https://t.co/W7TPWJHHvV
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 20, 2021
To be clear, Allen is pro-mask but he’s arguing that “we shouldn’t extend controls beyond what’s necessary”:
"This also isn’t about whether masks work. They do. But as with all control measures, there is a time and place for them. We shouldn’t extend controls beyond what’s necessary."
My latest in @PostOpinions.
https://t.co/whUtippgc6— Joseph Allen (@j_g_allen) October 19, 2021
Allen points out in his op-ed that the CDC has been overestimating the risk for 5-to-11-year-olds:
The official CDC data lumps together 0-17 year olds for hospitalization risk. (7 in 10M in New England as of yesterday). But did you know this is an *overestimate* of risk for 5-11 year olds?
I covered this in my article (supporting documentation in 🧵)https://t.co/whUtipGRAG
— Joseph Allen (@j_g_allen) October 20, 2021
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The TL;DR version is that the CDC lumped the younger kids in with 12-to-17-year-olds:
"And these are overestimates of hospitalization risk for 5-to-11-year-olds, since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s data lumps them together with the slightly higher-risk 12-to-17-year-olds."https://t.co/FjxoCPiFFA
— Joseph Allen (@j_g_allen) October 20, 2021
And he argues that kids shouldn’t be punished for adults who refuse to get vaccinated:
"As for adults who remain unvaccinated, the delta variant will find them eventually, and, when it does, their risk of severe outcomes remains high. But kids should not have to bear the burden of reckless adults any longer than they already have." https://t.co/nCvB2asfno
— Beth Fouhy (@bfouhy) October 20, 2021
Exactly. Where’s the off-ramp for kids?
If you're @-ing me that my piece is somehow reckless b/c I propose an off-ramp for school masking, but you haven't offered an alternative, you're kind of proving my point.
CDC is most at fault here: they set adult mask off-ramp (albeit w/ flawed metrics) but not one for kids??
— Joseph Allen (@j_g_allen) October 20, 2021
Over to you, schools:
"If we don’t set hard deadlines, it’s easy to see how schools could sleepwalk into indefinite masking for kids for at least this entire school year."https://t.co/MrMune4bzm
— Kate Brannen (@K8brannen) October 20, 2021
One issue that WILL come up, however, is if a mask off-ramp is tied to child vaccinations will those ever hit a number that the masked-up-forever crowd will accept?
For adults, we rolled out the National Guard. What's the plan for kids?
My rec: "Host at-school vax clinics in every school. No more crossing our fingers and hoping people will find a local clinic or CVS. We must bring the vaccines to the students."https://t.co/whUtipGRAG
— Joseph Allen (@j_g_allen) October 20, 2021
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