Is it time to have the difficult conversation about masks and MCPS?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| This has gotten really off track. I'd like to start a new thread on the topic of masking, but the moderators stopped one that another person started a few days ago becuase this thread was created for that purpose. I would really like to see the state (and then MCPS) to back off the mask mandate in schools as soon as our younger students have the opportunity to be two weeks past their second vaccination. I don't see the point of everyone getting vaccinated if we are not able to live our lives unmasked afterward. We are one of, if not most highly vaccinated counties in the nation. It's time to move past the restrictions and put this behind us. Yes, there will still be cases of Covid here and there, but not enough to warrant an entire population of vaccination having to mask for an indeterminate amount of time. |
Anonymous
I agree that this thread got totally off track, but honestly, no mask thread ever stays on track. It devolves every time by incoherent, irrational people on all sides. As the mother of a hearing-impaired child, I would love a conversation about when classrooms can be mask-free, but some people just aren’t ready to even have the conversation. |
Anonymous
And don't get us started on coddling kids with seatbelts and bike helmets! |
Anonymous
Seatbelts and bike helmets are not coddling. They are good for all. So are oven mots for baking and sunscreen etc etc. but masking forever is not the same. It’s stupid and will backfire if you do it in perpetuity…..once in a while - ok - if you have a cold and can’t stay home. Maybe even when flying it does make sense. I seem to always catch a cold after a flight. But I don’t agree with indoor masking in general and indefinitely…..specially for children once vaccinated. |
Anonymous
Fortunately, almost nobody is talking about masks forever. But the "no masks" and the "no quarantines" and the "no vaccines for children" really need to get together and work it out amongst yourselves, because you're not going to get all three. |
Anonymous
I mean, the obvious answer is, "When children aged 5-11 get vaccinated," but the majority of people aren't planning to get their children aged 5-11 vaccinated... |
Anonymous
The point is the vaccine is to protect you from the severity of covid. You can still get and spread covid. There are no restrictions except in school and its the delicate parents, not kids complaining. Masks are the absolute minimum for safety. There is no distancing, little testing, etc. And, last year the cold and flu were much less so that says something. |
Anonymous
Most people WILL get their kids vaccinated but they want to know the short and long term issues before getting it. The sample size of the study was 1500 kids so very small. |
Anonymous
The test size is reasonable. The question is not is there any risk to getting the vax, but rather is the risk of the vax greater than the risk associated with contracting covid? We already know the vax is safe with kids aged 12 and up with millions of vaccinations given. That and the recent study for 5-11 gave the FDA confidence. |
Anonymous
|
Some people seem to be in denial about the new reality.
Seat belts are forever. Air bags are forever. Safety helmets are forever. Heck, even Driver's Licenses are forever. As long as Covid is a "thing" - don't understand why anyone is against wearing a mask? Apparently wearing masks not only works, but I'll bet you saw an overall drop in sick-days from the flu and other airborne-transmittable diseases. You seem to believe that covid is "over" in the U.S., or perhaps that there's a magic shield that separates Montgomery County from the rest of reality? What is amazing is this desperate, almost incomprehensible push to unmask BEFORE all U.S. children are vaccinated? Why is that? Why would someone be so absolutely desperate to push for unmasking U.S. children (a) prior to full U.S. vaccination and, (b) just before cold and flu season set in? Please explain. Would like to hear the very detailed rationale that doesn't involve self-absorbed vanity, support of political propaganda prior to mid-term elections, or someone just trying to do harm to this country? |
Anonymous
+1 It seems entirely prudent to wait until the children actually have access to the vaccine to make any broad decisions about this. We also don’t need to have a million speculative discussions prior. Let’s see how vax roll out and uptake goes, what rates look like locally once most/all families have had a reasonable chance to seek a vaccine for their children and then go from there. It is not hard to change the mandate when the time comes. It makes no sense at all to unmask randomly right now before children can be vaccinated. Especially when these long quarantines are still in place so even a mild or asymptomatic case is quite inconvenient and disruptive. |
Anonymous
| MCPS will announce changes to quarantine rules tomorrow. |
Anonymous
We didn't introduce masks in the first place to protect kids. It was to protect old and sick people who are at much, much greater risk than kids. Given that COVID is roughly as severe at the flu in kids, and we didn't mask during flu season before, why would mask for COVID now? |
Anonymous
The trial had 3000 kids get vaccinated. There was a second group. That's still not big enough to demonstrate lower risk though vaccination rather than infection. That's why the EUA had to use the 12-15yo kid data to argue that it was sufficiently safe. |
Anonymous
+1. What is this insane preoccupation with masks - or not wearing them? There’s a reason MCPS has had relatively few kids quarantined as compared to districts where masks are not mandatory (looking at you, Texas and Florida). We’ve also been fortunate to not have entire schools closed down this school year, like those areas with no masks. Yes the vaccine minimizes the effects but it doesn’t entirely eliminate covid. Masks make a difference in the spread. Common sense and science say continue with masks. |