Anonymous wrote:Dear teachers,
CDC is updating their guidance at 3 p.m. today (https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/a0225-covid-19-update.html). The rumor ABC is reporting is that the guidance will unmask 70% of the country AND specifically say schools are just like any other building rather than keeping schools as a separate category (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/cdc-ease-masking-recommendations-70-country-including-inside/story?id=83111596). You'll have to pick my jaw up off the floor if Fairfax County, with our hospitalizations around normal utilization for this time any winter, is not in the 70%.

Maybe FCPS will free you to do as you want, whatever that is?

I’ll be happy to see this if it happens. School is pretty much the only place I’ve been masked over the past few weeks.

ES Teacher

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand the contact tracing and close contact status. If a student is fully vaccinated, can they be considered an exposed close contact if they aren't wearing a mask? Right now, vaccinated students don't have to quarantine but I'm not clear if that is mask-dependent. Anyone know?

I'm also really sad that the teachers can't take their masks off. Those teachers of early grades, especially, really need to have the masks off for phonics and emotional connection with the little ones. We've only had one week this entire year where transmission was low enough to meet the FCPS metric. Maybe the CDC's new guidelines will change FCPS's mind.

If 10% of a school comes down with Covid at once, they will start contact tracing. Vaccinated kids still don't have to either quarantine (before 3/18) or do test to stay (3/18 or later) in the unlikely even that:

1) 10% of a school has Covid, triggering it being considered an outbreak site and
2) they are marked a close contact during contact tracing of all the kids near those 10% of kids

It's not mask dependent. All masks did was keep kids between 3 & 6 feet from being counted as close contacts.

I will be very surprised if we have an outbreak after masks drop.

I don't understand the contact tracing and close contact status. If a student is fully vaccinated, can they be considered an exposed close contact if they aren't wearing a mask? Right now, vaccinated students don't have to quarantine but I'm not clear if that is mask-dependent. Anyone know?

I'm also really sad that the teachers can't take their masks off. Those teachers of early grades, especially, really need to have the masks off for phonics and emotional connection with the little ones. We've only had one week this entire year where transmission was low enough to meet the FCPS metric. Maybe the CDC's new guidelines will change FCPS's mind.

Dear teachers,
CDC is updating their guidance at 3 p.m. today (https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/a0225-covid-19-update.html). The rumor ABC is reporting is that the guidance will unmask 70% of the country AND specifically say schools are just like any other building rather than keeping schools as a separate category (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/cdc-ease-masking-recommendations-70-country-including-inside/story?id=83111596). You'll have to pick my jaw up off the floor if Fairfax County, with our hospitalizations around normal utilization for this time any winter, is not in the 70%.

Maybe FCPS will free you to do as you want, whatever that is?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS isn't even acknowledging March 1.

The various fcps newsletters, weekly email from school, SB newsletter, etc has said NOTHING about March 1. There are long wordy paragraphs about XYZ, but nothing about masks post Mar 1.

They're in denial of the inevitable.

It's their passive aggressive 'in denial' approach.

Scroll upthread. It's all there, clear, detailed, and surprisingly pretty sane.

Up until just this morning, FCPS and Brandbrand were radio silent.

Brabrand's email upthread was sent today - barely 3 days before mask optional.

Way to wait until the last possible moment to acknowledge the elephant in the room. I'm surprised he didn't send the email at 5pm on a Friday.

Anonymous wrote:I am so disappointed that they won’t have more protocols for unmasked and they won’t contact trace except for outbreaks.

At least the kids at my kid’s high school are very supportive of continued masking. Hopefully that will help reduce cases until our community transmission is lower.

Hope that will stop Putin from invading Ukraine. Similar chance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do think at this point (vaccines widely available for gross majority of FCPS students for some time, ~2 yrs in, community cases and hospitalizations and deaths where they are, etc) that labor-intensive contact tracing no longer seems worth the resources. We should be able to proceed with people keeping sick and/or symptomatic people home.

People don’t stay home when they are sick and we still have substantial level of community transmission. Without masks, there will be more cases spread inside schools.

Just because masks become optional, i.e. not required but not forbidden either? Many may still choose to wear them. Anyone with concerns should certainly exercise that choice.

I think the argument people don’t stay home when sick is problematic because that has always been true yet we have not always require masks. Relying on this argument suggest never getting rid of masks. Making them optional in March is reasonable, even if you do not like how it has come about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am so disappointed that they won’t have more protocols for unmasked and they won’t contact trace except for outbreaks.

At least the kids at my kid’s high school are very supportive of continued masking. Hopefully that will help reduce cases until our community transmission is lower.

Did you know that Covid spread inside of FCPS schools has been less than 1% as per Michelle Boyd earlier this month? Contact tracing is an incredible waste of time and resources for that.

Yes but that was with universal masking. It will be higher now but I guess they just won’t keep track or report the cases anymore.

They have to keep track of cases, because they have to be able to tell VDH if there is an outbreak. I assume they will continue updating the dashboard also. They just won't be contacting close contacts, unless there is an outbreak.

And as for whether or not transmission increases without universal masking, well, we'll see!

Anonymous wrote:I do think at this point (vaccines widely available for gross majority of FCPS students for some time, ~2 yrs in, community cases and hospitalizations and deaths where they are, etc) that labor-intensive contact tracing no longer seems worth the resources. We should be able to proceed with people keeping sick and/or symptomatic people home.

People don’t stay home when they are sick and we still have substantial level of community transmission. Without masks, there will be more cases spread inside schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am so disappointed that they won’t have more protocols for unmasked and they won’t contact trace except for outbreaks.

At least the kids at my kid’s high school are very supportive of continued masking. Hopefully that will help reduce cases until our community transmission is lower.

Did you know that Covid spread inside of FCPS schools has been less than 1% as per Michelle Boyd earlier this month? Contact tracing is an incredible waste of time and resources for that.

Yes but that was with universal masking. It will be higher now but I guess they just won’t keep track or report the cases anymore.

I do think at this point (vaccines widely available for gross majority of FCPS students for some time, ~2 yrs in, community cases and hospitalizations and deaths where they are, etc) that labor-intensive contact tracing no longer seems worth the resources. We should be able to proceed with people keeping sick and/or symptomatic people home.

Anonymous wrote:I am so disappointed that they won’t have more protocols for unmasked and they won’t contact trace except for outbreaks.

At least the kids at my kid’s high school are very supportive of continued masking. Hopefully that will help reduce cases until our community transmission is lower.

Did you know that Covid spread inside of FCPS schools has been less than 1% as per Michelle Boyd earlier this month? Contact tracing is an incredible waste of time and resources for that.

I am so disappointed that they won’t have more protocols for unmasked and they won’t contact trace except for outbreaks.

At least the kids at my kid’s high school are very supportive of continued masking. Hopefully that will help reduce cases until our community transmission is lower.

*part

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the cdc announces something today that will allow teachers to make a choice on masking.

I agree. So students get to take off their masks, but the teacher - the one teaching to the students - have to continue speaking through a mask? And weren't FCPS teachers the front of the line for vaccinations last year? Let's give them the option to take off those masks as well!

+1. I also think a lot of students will feel rude unmasking if their teacher is still wearing one (my kids are in this category). I think it is going to take a long time for more than a small percentage to stop masking because of social pressure/not wanting to stand out. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. At my nephew's ES in AACPS (MD), the vast majority of teachers and students unmasked the first day it was allowed. I think park of the difference is that their BOE voted unanimously in favor of masks optional and the policy applied to students and teachers so nobody felt like they were going against their school district.