Schools in the crosshairs of the US debate on COVID-19

US parents are divided over whether mask warrants belong to schools, and universities grapple with mandatory vaccines, as nation returns to classrooms and campuses amid pandemic wave four , this one powered by the highly transmissible variant Delta (B1617.2).

A new Gallup poll shows that 48% of parents in Kindergarten to Grade 12 believe students should be required to wear masks in school, while 41% oppose mask mandates for students. Likewise, 48% say teachers and staff should be required to wear masks, and 38% say they shouldn’t.

One area on which parents are not divided: a return to in-person learning. After 18 months of hybrid, virtual and some in-person education, 77% of survey respondents said they expected their child to return to a pre-pandemic school program this year.

Yesterday, the Florida Department of Education handed down its first sanctions against school boards that have adopted mask warrants, defying a recent ruling by a state judge, Politico reports. The department withholds salaries from school board members in Alachua and Broward counties.

Vaccine mandates for schools, campuses

In order to usher in a more normal school year, White House officials today urged school districts and universities to review immunization requirements.

“The immunization requirements are working; they increase immunization rates, ”said Jeff Zients, White House COVID-19 response coordinator. He said states and communities that have mandated vaccines have recently seen an increase in vaccinations.

COVID data tracking from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that 52.4% of Americans are fully vaccinated and 61.7% have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Liberty University of Virginia switched to online classes yesterday, just a week after the start of the semester, due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, according to the Washington Post. The school does not require that students or staff be vaccinated or wear masks.

In related news, Duke University yesterday passed a vaccine mandate for staff and a campus-wide mask requirement, after a COVID-19 outbreak infected nearly 350 students and 15 employees, CNBC reports.

Pediatric cases correspond to the winter outbreak

Today at the White House press conference, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH said the 7-day average of new cases rose to 129,000 per day, including 11,500 hospitalizations per day.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that 204,000 cases of COVID-19 in children have been reported for the week ending August 26, marking the second week with cases of children in the winter flare-up. Children represent 22.4% of new cases of COVID-19, and since the start of the pandemic, they have accounted for 14.8% of cases in the United States.

Yesterday, according to the New York Times tracker, the country recorded 158,946 cases, including 1,338 deaths. The pandemic totals in the United States climbed to 39,134,705 cases and 639,490 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins online tracker.

The hot spots remain concentrated in the South. New data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Texas have less than 10% of their intensive care unit capacity, CNN reports.

Outbreaks at camp, conference

Today, the CDC published in Morbidity and Mortality and Weekly Report (MMWR) evidence that gatherings with teens and adults who weren’t required to be vaccinated or tested have led to large epidemics , based on data from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).

During a 5-day religious camp for people aged 14-18 and a 2-day men’s conference, a total of 122 primary cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, with 104 (85%) in people who were not fully vaccinated, and 18 (15%) in people who were fully vaccinated. Eight of 38 (21%) close contacts of the 18 fully vaccinated people were subsequently infected with SARS-CoV-2, the authors said, and no one vaccinated with COVID-19 has been hospitalized.

“Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from vaccinated people to both unvaccinated and vaccinated people has likely occurred. These groundbreaking cases among vaccinated people were identified among camp and conference participants and among people exhibited to participants, ”the authors said.

“Consistent with previous studies, much of the identified secondary transmission has occurred in households, where the most prolonged contact occurs.”

Other developments in the United States – Only 20% of Americans now say they are unlikely (6%) or not at all likely (14%) to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a new Axios-Ipsos poll. This is down from 34% in March and 23% 2 weeks ago. Novavax said yesterday that for participants in its recombinant vaccine trial, the CDC considers people to be fully vaccinated 2 weeks after receiving their second dose. Also published in The MMWR Today is a study showing that COVID-19 patients have almost 16 times the risk of myocarditis than patients without the virus.

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