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Statewide school mask mandate to end Feb. 28
By adamg on Wed, 02/09/2022 - 10:29am
State officials say Massachusetts is so gosh-darned good with Covid-19 shots and boosters that it will no longer require masks in schools and daycare centers. However, communities and individual school districts will still be allowed to require masks based on local conditions, the state says, adding it will continue to recommend, if not require, masks in some situations.
State Education Secretary James Peyser said in a statement:
In a state with one of the highest vaccine acceptance rates in the country, and the state with the second highest vaccination rates among 5- to 11-year-olds, we must navigate the careful transition into opening up our society while simultaneously employing public health mitigation strategies. We are moving from mask requirement to mask optional, and we want school districts to move along with the state by making it optional, while still creating supportive environments for students and staff who choose to wear a mask.
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Comments
Good
Back to some normalcy. Next do away with the proof of vaccine mandate in Boston.
Haven't you read
They're working on that.
If you can eat and drink maskless
You can sit in class maskless.
If you have to take the T or there are lots of kids in school hallways, keep it on, but sitting in a classroom without one should be fine..
The argument for masks would
The argument for masks would be that reducing the time and number of classmates students are in close mask-less contact with reduces transmission of the virus. Masking for 80% of the day reduces transmission compared with zero masking. So its not like some mask-less time during the day makes any masked time pointless.
It's a question of how high transmission is in a given town/school. The rates are looking better and better statewide.
poor argument
my understanding (I'm not a pro) is that it's total exposure to Covid "germs" that make you sick. So, eating for 30 min means sick people breath out x germs, and healthy people might breath in y. But spending one hour together maskless doubles the risk. A full school day even worse.
Thats why taking your mask off briefly to eat/drink isn't the same as just not wearing one.