Wellesley public school and health officials trying navigate COVID-19 have latched on to some new favorite jargon: “Off-ramping.” They tossed this term around so much at the Aug. 11 Board of Health meeting that I half expected someone from the town’s Highway Division to drop in.
In this context, “off-ramping” refers to phasing out mitigation protocols like mandatory masking for all or some school community members based on predetermined metrics. For example, perhaps masking could go away for high school students and staff if the vaccination rate among them gets high enough (82% of vaccine-eligible students already have at least 1 dose, and 88% of faculty & staff were fully vaccinated by the end of this past school year based on self reporting). Only half of WPS students are eligible for the vaccine based on age.
Wellesley Public Schools now boast improved sanitizing systems, air filtration, and other safety protocols borne out of the past year of coping with and responding to the COVID threat. Based on discussion over the past 2 weeks, it feels as though Wellesley Public Schools is headed toward an indoor mask mandate for students and staff when classes start up on Sept. 1 regardless of vaccination status, though school officials looked to the Board of Health for guidance during Aug. 11 meeting. Discussions remain ongoing.
“We believe it makes sense, that it would be prudent and proactive to start the year wth everyone being masked,” WPS Supt. Dr. David Lussier said during the meeting, referencing a recommendation to the School Committee. The hope would be to “lessen that restriction later on,” he added.
That’s when the off-ramping discussion began in earnest, with Dr. Shira Doron, an immunologist and Wellesley parent, diving into the subject. She acknowledged the danger of the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID (“we don’t know where it’s going to go…”), but stressed that this area of the country is in a much better place by any number of measures regarding the pandemic than it was over the winter. She was readying for several off-ramping meetings this week, she said, and sought input from the school and health officials.
She did warn that off-ramps based on complicated mathematical models about risk can be difficult to communicate to the public. Other data, such as number of positive tests or hospitalizations, might not quite work at this point. Vaccination rate is an option, though as seen recently, you can still see transmissions and outbreaks even when vaccination rates are high.
Lussier said giving the community a sense of what measures might trigger a lessening of restrictions at schools would be important so that they don’t assume initial measures will be permanent.
Board Chair Shep Cohen suggested a smaller group from among those at the meeting might form to identify appropriate off-ramping measures, as not all board members were ready to make a recommendation to the schools without a clearer definition of off-ramping thresholds.
Although as Doron noted, “a key thing is being ready to re-discuss this issue very frequently.”
On the matter of COVID-19 testing, Lussier’s team doesn’t see widespread asymptomatic screening as useful in light of current data. However, rapid symptomatic screening in school could be useful for keeping kids in class, he said. The state is offering such “test and stay” programs for free.
The data is absolutely clear that children are not at serious risk from covid. According to the CDC, there were 131 children who died WITH (not necessarily FROM) covid between the ages of 0-4 and 292 between the ages of 5 and 18. That data is through August 11, 2021. Most of those deaths occurred in children who had a pre-existing severe illness (like leukemia, e.g.). The CDC also provides that during the 2019-2020 flu season, 434 pediatric deaths occurred from the flu.
We never have masked our children for the flu, and there is no reason – NO REASON – to mask them for covid. The vast majority of the adults who come in contact with the children have been vaccinated, as well. Although vaccination is not 100% effective against the virus, it helps alleviate symptoms. The adults who are unvaccinated who come into contact with them are accepting the risk of infection. Further, unlike a year ago, we have treatments now that have proven quite successful in preventing severe illness and death.
Quite simply, adults are failing the children. How long are we going to make them live in fear? Are we going to mandate masks forever? How long are we going to place this psychological trauma upon our children? They need to see each other’s faces. They need to breathe air. They need to be able to see each other speak. They need to see facial expressions. They need to be able to be children again.
And adults have to stop their irrational fear from harming their children more than the virus would.
I strongly agree with Dr. Simonson’s comments during the BOH meeting. We have a high vaccination rate, especially at the HS, which does not make mandating masks logical especially since there has been no risk benefit assessment for those students who struggle with masking. Mental health issues, anxiety and depression cases have sky rocketed in adolescents in addition to headaches, nausea & breathing issues. Last year vaccines were non existent but today they are doing what they are meant to do prevent hospitalizations and deaths. We need to focus on getting these kids back to a normal school experience.