Just as you thought that the COVID-19 pandemic was fading away restrictions come back. It’s been well over a year, and we can’t seem to shake the coronavirus.
The cities of Chicago, Boston and Atlanta are the newest additions to a list of cities that require students to wear masks while attending class.
This masks will unscientifically be required regardless of whether or not the student is vaccinated. This directly goes against CDC guidance.
The decisions come as COVID-19 once again climbs in its number of cases. Although, this climb is still not even remotely comparable to what we saw last year.
Fox News reported, The U.S. saw nearly 44,000 new cases of COVID-19 on a daily basis over the last seven days – a more than 50 percent increase in the number of cases reported from the week prior, according to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
More than 56 percent of all Americans have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, but cases are again on the rise as the delta variant has spread to every U.S. state.
The CDC has been very clear that generally vaccinated persons are safe from the Delta variant. They are unlikely to contract, and if they do unlikely to experience serious symptoms.
In fact, the CDC director, Rochelle Walensky said that fully vaccinated people are so safe that they do not need to wear masks.
“If you are vaccinated, you are safe from the variants that are circulating here in the United States,” she said, and then responded “exactly right” to a comment regarding vaccinated people being safe enough to not require masking.
“Continuing to require masks will help make sure those in our school communities who are not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, which encompasses the majority of our students, remain as safe as possible,” the Chicago Public School System said in a letter to parents.
The White House COVID-19 Response Team also remarked on twitter that “Virtually all the COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are in unvaccinated people.”
These mask mandates are temporary and as of now only in the fall term. With any luck they will stop in their tracks and not carry into the spring.