Gov. Charlie Baker is keeping mum on the mask policy in Massachusetts schools following updated guidance from the CDC and calls from local teachers and medical experts all pushing for face coverings in school come fall. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance from Tuesday states all students and staff should wear a mask at school in the face of the highly-contagious Delta variant. However, Massachusetts policy currently says all masking and social distancing will be lifted in school come fall. When asked Wednesday about the school masking policy and whether face coverings should be required, Baker simply said, “Considering.” A coalition of over 200 Bay State medical and public health experts sent letters to Baker and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeff Riley pushing for universal masking in schools. One of the letters, led by Dr. Natalya Davis, a pediatrician in Quincy, reads, “Discontinuation of masking in schools at this point shows willful disregard of expert medical and public health opinion in direct contradiction of both the “American Academy of Pediatrics and CDC current recommendations.” A second letter signed by dozens of doctors and authored by Dr. Regina LaRocque, an infectious disease physician and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, states, “Young children lack protection from disease, and vaccination rates among adolescents are insufficient to prevent outbreaks in school communities.” Last week, Sen. Becca Rausch, D-Needham, also sent a letter asking the Republican governor to impose a mask mandate for schools with vaccines unlikely to be approved for use in children before the fall. “The longer he waits and delays implementation…it creates space for further politicization of basic public health and safety protections,” Rausch told the Herald. Senate President Karen Spilka said earlier this week she’s inclined to support a mask mandate in schools this fall if “numbers keep creeping up and the Delta variant is still as prominent or more prominent than it is now.” The Massachusetts Teachers Association has also signed on to the CDC mask recommendation. MTA President Merrie Najimy said in a statement, “The safest way to implement in-person learning and to keep students, educators and communities healthy and safe is to have all students and staff wear face masks regardless of vaccination status.” Not all educators are jumping on the CDC policy, though. Thomas Carroll, superintendent of schools for the Boston Archdiocese, said mask policies will be left up to individual schools. There will be no mask mandate for vaccinated students and staff, according to Carroll. The post Baker mum on masks in schools as medical experts and teachers push for face coverings appeared first on Medical Update News. via Medical Update News https://medicalupdatenews.com/baker-mum-on-masks-in-schools-as-medical-experts-and-teachers-push-for-face-coverings/
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