DC schools September vaccine mandate does not apply to elementary school children

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect our school will have indoor masks and opt in weekly testing but quarantines will be only for those either not vaccinated or not willing to do test to stay (assuming there is still access to lots of rapid tests).

If kids are given an option of either, I think the concerns about certain groups being more vaccine hesitant than others are pretty well addressed?

Still, we might be one of the last areas in the country not fully returned to life as before and I'm not sure how to feel about that.

TTS wasn't done above the ECE age for most schools, I think. I don't even know if it was done for the ECE age at many schools.

But the vaccine, as has been shown, does extremely little for preventing spread, particularly in the school age group. It is therefore difficult to use it to distinguish children on the basis of who can stay in the building and who can't. When the negative repercussions of the policy are large (keeping kids out of school, particularly ones that have already suffered extended periods of time out of school), and the positives are small to negligible, then the policy is bad. The policy is PARTICULARLY bad when it disproportionately hurts Black kids' education.

You can either keep disproportionately Black kids out of school or change the policy.

I’ll take: “Not supported by science and bullshit accusation of racism for $100, Alex!”

What? No, it's common thinking by now that the vaccines aren't great at preventing transmission. That's how you get surges of cases even in highly vaccinated places. An example of the literature:

https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o298
"Most papers to date (notably, many are preprints and have yet to be peer reviewed) indicate vaccines are holding up against admission to hospital and mortality, says Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, “but not so much against transmission.”"

[Anonymous]

Again, the quarantine policy differs by vaccination status, presumably because unvaxxed kids are presumed more likely to contract and spread the virus. That's not showing to be true -- the vaxxed are far less likely to get severe cases of illness and be hospitalized or die, but they aren't less likely to transmit. So the idea of keeping kids out of school on this basis is pointless.

When you have, in the case of DC, disproportionately Black kids not getting vaxxed, the result is more Black kids out of school for more days. Because there's not benefit of this, and there is demonstrated harm, it's a bad policy.

[Anonymous]

Does this apply to Prek4 the youngest age range for the vaccine we haven’t found an appointment to have time to get three shots before school starts? Any clarity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this apply to Prek4 the youngest age range for the vaccine we haven’t found an appointment to have time to get three shots before school starts? Any clarity?

This is why most parents I know went with the 2 shot sequence. There will be a booster this winter anyway, but this way your kid counts as fully vaccinated in time for school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this apply to Prek4 the youngest age range for the vaccine we haven’t found an appointment to have time to get three shots before school starts? Any clarity?

That vax won't be out of EUA, perhaps ever, so no, the mandate wouldn't apply to them.

But are you talking about getting out of quarantine?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this apply to Prek4 the youngest age range for the vaccine we haven’t found an appointment to have time to get three shots before school starts? Any clarity?

You don't need an appointment. Just walk in to any DC Covid Center. https://coronavirus.dc.gov/covidcenters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To add: I get the idea originally for getting the vaccine to prevent spread. It just hasn't been shown, over time and with more data, that it really does that (or at least, does that very well).

We know, for a fact, that vaccinated individuals can still catch and transmit Covid.

Since the Covid vaccine does not prevent spread, there is no solid justification for shorter quarantines for vaccinated students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again, the quarantine policy differs by vaccination status, presumably because unvaxxed kids are presumed more likely to contract and spread the virus. That's not showing to be true -- the vaxxed are far less likely to get severe cases of illness and be hospitalized or die, but they aren't less likely to transmit. So the idea of keeping kids out of school on this basis is pointless.

When you have, in the case of DC, disproportionately Black kids not getting vaxxed, the result is more Black kids out of school for more days. Because there's not benefit of this, and there is demonstrated harm, it's a bad policy.

+1

Very bad public policy. How can DCPS justify this policy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To add: I get the idea originally for getting the vaccine to prevent spread. It just hasn't been shown, over time and with more data, that it really does that (or at least, does that very well).

We know, for a fact, that vaccinated individuals can still catch and transmit Covid.

Since the Covid vaccine does not prevent spread, there is no solid justification for shorter quarantines for vaccinated students.

+1

I think if the DOH or OSSE sticks with quarantines for close contact unvaccinated only they will have a lawsuit on their hands. Parents shouldn’t be forced to vaccinate when the vaccine doesn’t reduce spread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To add: I get the idea originally for getting the vaccine to prevent spread. It just hasn't been shown, over time and with more data, that it really does that (or at least, does that very well).

We know, for a fact, that vaccinated individuals can still catch and transmit Covid.

Since the Covid vaccine does not prevent spread, there is no solid justification for shorter quarantines for vaccinated students.

+1

I think if the DOH or OSSE sticks with quarantines for close contact unvaccinated only they will have a lawsuit on their hands. Parents shouldn’t be forced to vaccinate when the vaccine doesn’t reduce spread.

Based on the science and the data we have regarding vaccines and regarding Covid at this point, any public health official advocating for vaccines mandates for anyone under the age of 18 needs to be fired. Immediately.

I hope we see some lawsuits regarding the vaccinated versus unvaccinated quarantine policy and about the DCPS mandate itself.

[Anonymous]

DC will not enforce any Covid vaccination requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC will not enforce any Covid vaccination requirement.

Hope that’s true. But then, why even have one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this apply to Prek4 the youngest age range for the vaccine we haven’t found an appointment to have time to get three shots before school starts? Any clarity?

Not required for kids under 12 period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC will not enforce any Covid vaccination requirement.

Hope that’s true. But then, why even have one?

My guess is to appease nervous teachers and parents who still want extreme Covid mitigation measures (and yes I think quarantines for every exposure for unvaccinated individuals, forcing teachers to get boosters and Covid vaccine mandates are extreme measures).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC will not enforce any Covid vaccination requirement.

Hope that’s true. But then, why even have one?

It’s all optics. They say there’s a mandate because it’s good optics. They won’t enforce it because that would be bad optics. There is no substance to it.