By Guy Page
Will Vermont public school students be required to wear masks this fall? That question is under discussion now among Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine, Education Secretary Dan French, and other health and education experts. Their answer may be forthcoming next week.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Levine may have tipped his hand: unable to vaccinate under age 12, masking may be the next-best option. At the 64 minute, 40 second mark, WCAX reporter Calvin Cutler asked:
“Dr Levine, quick question about masking and schools. We talked about the CDC guidance last week. The CDC says some fully vaccinated people don’t have to wear masks, but the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending everybody [two years or older] to wear masks regardless of vaccination status. Given what we know now about the spread of the delta variant, and how that’s playing out, which way are you leaning?”
Commissioner Levine responded:
“They’re all basing their recommendations on science and trying to be, in the case of AAP, as conservative as possible to keep things as safe for kids. I’ll be meeting here in Vermont with infectious disease experts and other pediatricians and advisors later this week, and along with [VT Education] Secretary French as well. We’re going to weigh all of these varying pieces of guidance and the science, along with our experience with masking, along with what Covid looks like now in Vermont, and what we anticipate it will look like in the fall with regard to community transmission levels. We’ll look at vaccination rates, at least among the students who are eligible currently to be vaccinated, as we prepare for the fall.
“When you look at the guidances that have come out, much of them are really about actually reopening school, something that Vermont did a long long time ago and has done very successfully. What we’re planning for in Vermont is a safe return to school, as opposed to suddenly having to reopen school and invent that entire playbook again.
“So we’ll have more to say on that after these meetings we have this week. But I can understand where the guidance comes from because, obviously, kids under 12 are ineligible at this time to be vaccinated and these organizations want to keep them as safe as possible.”
In a July 21 letter to the Vermont Board of Education, Colchester parent and educator Genna Barnaby cited statistics showing the extremely low risk of Covid in schools: no children have died of Covid-19 in Vermont – one of 41 states with a zero fatality rate among children. Of 9000 Vermont school-based employees tested for Covid, only 21 tested positive – a rate of .002.
“There are no CDC reported studies of mask usage in children over a long period of time prior to the pandemic, yet there are reports of influenza-like illnesses and labored breathing while masking,” Barnaby wrote. “Masking also affects the quality of education, development of speech, language, social-emotional skills, and social life. Recommending that all or only noninjected people wear masks in schools is not based on sound science.”
Categories: Education
I read a most concerning medical study conducted my a neurologist that showed that mask wearing in young children can cause the brain to not develop propetly due to reduced oxygen levels. According to the study, it take years for the negative impact of oxygen deprivation in young children to be detectable. I sincerely do not understand why Vermont is not looking at the big picture.
The above referred study is correct. As is the small group of parents in FL that sent masks to lab for swabbing. Lots of bacteria etc. no surprise nothing is don/doff correctly. Levine knows this – he knows any (low) benefit is assuming correct fit (ie N95 not an old navy special) don,doff, frequent change etc and even that doesn’t do a thing.
The fact that spineless “experts”, hcw, teachers, school nurses, parents are pretending that if you take a t shirt cut it and make it into a mask it prevents a pandemic is laughable. Have you held it up to a window on a sunny day?
The fact that hcw who knew up until 3/16 that masks don’t work this way but are willing to mislead everyone else is poor practice. Shame on you all.
Note the spike in rsv in New Zealand, presumed due to “immunity debt”. Assuming Levine remembers immunity 101- and putting kids in these stupid bubbles is nothing but malpractice
Meant to add – google- Mark Levine md vt- click images. A few scrolls down is a pic of him in a mask that has one full side completely stretched / uncinched you could fit a hamburger in it. It’s amazing. That’s the clown running this show
Kids are already safe, always have been. Survival rate is 99.8% – 99.5% for most people, especially kids and younger people. All variants are for scare tactics to create more fear to control the population into submitting the “new normal” of taking away your God-given Liberty. Their aim is to destroy the Constitution and make America into a Marxist State. The shots are not vaccines, they are experimental, unlicensed, unapproved “death” shots. The shots are under an Emergency Use Authorization for authorized use by Informed Consent of the risks and benefits of the shot. The Marxist Scott Administration is lying to the public.
Arm yourselves, know your rights: 21 U.S.C. Section 360, The Nuremberg Code of 1947 and the 2005 PREP Act.
https://americasfrontlinedoctors.org
Whatever happened to the flu? Think and do research, don’t trust the lies.
OMG no. This is insanity. The kids are not at risk from COVID. Any teacher or school staffer that wanted the vax has gotten one. Why on earth would you do this to these poor kids? Haven’t they been through enough already?
Our family is awaiting this decision…. while already at a private school, we will move to homeschooling if the recommendation is to wear masks. I will not subject my children to another year of wearing masks. It’s unfortunate that more people are unwilling to see the actual science of how harmful long term mask wearing is: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2781743
It is heartbreaking to see little 3 and 4 year olds in school, especially those struggling with speech and learning issues, trying to figure out how to keep a mask on while playing and learning – to say nothing of how difficult it is to have their teacher’s face covered up – those little tykes can’t even see their teacher smiling encouragement at their little successes. Sad situation.
I would like the health commissioner to show us the data that masks have helped curb cases. (And no, he can’t cite springtime data alone, since RNA viruses always diminish with the return of warm weather.) The data I’m looking at shows a 2000% increase in cases from last Aug 1 (when the governor’s mask mandate went into effect) and the peak of cases during the fall/winter–higher, in fact, than the spring 2020 case peak without a mask mandate. You see the same trend lines in almost every state that put in a mandate. I’m less concerned with lab studies than with real-world results, and so far the real world says masks are virtually worthless.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/vermont/
Here’s a CDC study from March 2021 showing decreases in case and growth rates after implementing mask policies – https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e3.htm
According to that study, mask policies, and therefore compliance with those policies, do reduce transmission. However, expecting COVID to be eliminated because of masks is unrealistic for a variety of reasons and I don’t think has been ever stated as a single solution. Again, based on the data, the caseload now is the result with masking policies, without masking policies transmission would actually be higher.
I have some issues with the study, but taking it at face value, the effects are not large. Other studies, such as one last fall in Denmark, show that masks do little to protect the wearer. If one’s sole concern is preventing every possible case of COVID, then extreme measures can be justified. However, such measures ignore the collateral damage of increased drug overdoses, depression, suicide, decreased learning in schools, etc. By and large kids don’t get covid, vaccinated or not. Vaccines are available to any adult that wants one. Let’s get back to normal. I’m over 70 and have always managed my own risks without any edicts from Dr. Levine. Others should do the same.
How can VT legally mandate masks in school when the executive powers have been lifted? Scott always said that once the executive powers were lifted it would be up to the individual.
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August 10th, 11th and 12th. Not August 13th.
Kids are more at risk from a car accident on the way to school than they are from COVID-19. Levine refers to “the science.” There is NO science that supports masking kids under 12.
This is more crazy thinking from the Marxist! It is all about government control and Gov. Scott and many others are falling right in their hands. These people need to learn about Marxism as government controllers, and the contrast of what America is all about. Look at the science Doc and Guv.
“Recommending that all or only noninjected people wear masks in schools is not based on sound science.”
EXACTLY! Thank you Guy! These despicable minions are inhuman – arise from slumber people!
I’m so tired of hearing that our decision will be made on science. These days science is for sale to the highest bidder. Most educated people have learned from the holocaust. And that is that Dr. Levine is just following orders. He will be shown data that has been verified to be valid by the minister of truth. In this case Dr. Fauci. Raw data is never revealed. No peer professional opposing opinions voiced and debated. Delta variant discovery based on manipulated PCR testing. Learn from the movie “Matrix”. People need good reason to enslave themselves. We have that now. Second people need to feel good about their lack of liberty. That is accomplished through in home entertainment video games and virtual reality glasses while ingesting the latest legalized THC products and pharmaceuticals. People will elect to stay home because Church Street is no longer safe because of police defunding. Live concerts and ball games will be branded for potential mass shootings so at home pay per view will become the norm.
Tyrants of the past have used gas chambers and ovens to get rid of their dissidents. But that is too discoverable. Hitler used IBM data collection machines to identify Jews documented by Edwin Black in his holocaust non-fiction book. If Hitler was alive today he would use data collection from Twitter, Facebook and Google for targeting and use lab scientists at 23andme to create gene specific bioweapons that would naturally accelerate early onset of existing illnesses over time. But to ensure complete control and selective “immunity” the weapons would need to be administered as beneficial and with consent. But when people start to die in unpresented numbers it will need to be explained medically. This is where Hitler would use the media to demonize the non-compliant and use them as scapegoats. What is so brilliant about this process is that it is covert and uses existing medical and trusted media infrastructure to carry out and dispose of the fallout from genocide. And when critical supply chain people, like nuclear power plant engineers are no longer able to work at their jobs, societal collapse will give cover to the perpetrators. It may all be science fiction but one has to admit its also plausible. Take the red pill and wake up. Take the blue pill and go quietly into the night. Colors are so metaphorical, aren’t they?