Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing Wednesday her agency will recommend masks for school children …
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing Wednesday her agency will recommend masks for school children even after vaccines are administered for children ages 5-11. « As we head into these winter months, we cannot be complacent,” Walensky said. « We know from previous data that schools that have had masks in place were 3.5 times less likely to have school outbreaks requiring school closure. So right now we are going to continue to recommend masks in all schools for all people in those schools and we will look forward to scaling up pediatric vaccination during this period. » See Walensky’s remarks: During the briefing Wednesday, the White House said it has secured enough supply to vaccinate the 28 million children who would become eligible pending FDA authorization. The administration also will assist more than 25,000 pediatric and primary care offices, hundreds of community health centers and rural health clinics, and tens of thousands of pharmacies to administer the shots. « We know millions of parents have been waiting for COVID-19 vaccine for kids in this age group. And should the FDA and CDC authorize the vaccine, we will be ready to get shots in arms, » said White House COVID-19 response director Jeff Zients at the briefing. In early August, Walensky said in a CNN interview that the vaccines were not preventing transmission of the virus. She said vaccinated people should still wear masks indoors, because while the vaccines are working « exceptionally well » at keeping people from experiencing severe illness and death from COVID-19, « what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission. » CDC statistics show children generally do not spread COVID-19 and have little risk of any adverse effects. The seasonal flu is more deadly among children than COVID-19, and the swine flu one decade ago was six times more deadly. The survival rate for children under age 20 who get COVID, according to the CDC, is 99.998%. Earlier this week, citing concerns of an increased risk of heart inflammation, the FDA delayed its decision on administration of the Moderna vaccine to young people. The agency is planning to review the data regarding myocarditis further before making a decision. Already, as WND reported, Sweden, Finland and Norway have halted the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for younger people, and Iceland has stopped administering the shot to everyone. ‘The data do not support’ mask mandates At a news conference Wednesday, Florida’s new surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, urged citizens to « step back for a moment from you hear constantly on TV » from public health officials. He said « the data do not support any clinical benefit for children in schools with mask mandates. » Parents should be the ones to decide whether or not to put a mask on their children, Ladapo said, adding that they are « being placed in impossible situations related to the health of their children. » At the news conference, Republican Gov.
