CDC Director: Schools Should Still Require Masks

In this image from video, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky speaks during a virtual interview on Feb. 8, 2022. Reuters

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Feb. 8 that students and faculty in schools should still be required to wear masks.

“We continue to endorse universal masking in schools,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky told Reuters.

“We have and continue to recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission—that is essentially everywhere in the country in public indoor settings,” she added.

Walensky’s comments came after the Democrat governors of New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut announced plans to drop their respective school mask mandates, and Democrats in the Virginia Senate helped pass a bill that would prohibit districts from requiring face coverings.

COVID-19 cases, after skyrocketing in late 2021 and early January due to the Omicron virus variant, have dropped significantly across the nation in recent weeks.

Under 80,000 cases were reported on both Feb. 5 and Feb. 6 to the CDC. On Feb. 7, about 353,400 were reported, but that number was still far lower than the 1.3 million logged on Jan. 10.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have also gone down considerably, dipping under 4 per 100,000 population after peaking at 6.5 per 100,000.

The CDC and some health experts allege requiring masks helps stem the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, known as SARS-CoV-2 or the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

“Based on studies from the 2020–2021 school year, CDC recommends schools maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms, combined with indoor mask wearing to reduce transmission risk,” the health agency says on its website.

Children wear masks at East End Elementary School in North Plainfield, N.J., on Oct. 25, 2021. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Among the studies the agency has promoted is a Feb. 4 paper, published in its quasi-journal, that found no statistically significant protection from cloth masks. Surgical and respirator masks helped prevent COVID-19 infection, researchers said.

Critics say the studies that purportedly show masks help prevent transmission and infection lack controls and have other weaknesses.

Walensky told Reuters that despite the drop in cases and hospitalizations, the levels haven’t gone down enough to change the CDC’s guidance for schools to require masks.

“I don’t think we’re there right now,” she said.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy disagreed, telling a news conference on Monday regarding the lifting of the school mask mandate that “we can responsibly take this step given the continuing drop in new cases and hospitalizations from Omicron and with all the evidence projecting a continued decline over the coming weeks.”

Murphy, Delaware Gov. John Carney, and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont will still allow districts in their states to require masks; some states helmed by Republicans have barred districts from mandating the coverings.

Asked about the moves by governors like Murphy, White House press secretary Jen Psaki, in a nod to how the CDC only offers guidance, told reporters in Washington that “it’s always been up to school districts.”

“We certainly understand and have seen in polling that the public is tired of COVID. We understand that. So are we. And there has been some good signs recently where there has been a decrease in hospitalizations around the country. We’re in constant touch about what it looks like moving forward,” she said. “But our responsibility, as the federal government, is to rely on the data and the science that is being analyzed by our public health experts. And we’ll continue to rely on that for what recommendations we’re making.”