CDC Warns Schools Without Mask Mandates for Covid 19 Outbreak

The CDC released a new study Friday that shows executing masks in schools helps reduce the spread of Covid 19.  One study looked at data from schools in Arizona’s Maricopa and Pima Counties after theyresumed investigating in late July for the 2021-22 academic year.

The two counties account for roughly 75% of the state’s population. The agency also found that the K-12 schools that did not have mask requirements at the beginning of the school year were 3.5 times more likely to have Covid 19 outbreaks than schools that required all people, regardless of vaccination status, to wear a mask indoors from the first day of school.

Nearly 999 schools analyzed in the study, 21% had an early mask requirement, 30.9% enacted a mask requirement between nine and 17 days after the school year began, and 48% had no mask requirement. Nearly 191 Covid 19 outbreaks that occurred in those schools from July 15 to August 31, 113 were in schools that did not enforce masks at all. Schools with early mask requirements had the lowest number of outbreaks.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Arizona noticed the surge in weekly Covid 19 cases.  Another study from the agency looked at the impact of school mask mandates across the U.S. Several states, including Florida, Texas and Arizona, have attempted to ban school districts from enforcing masks.Authors looked at data from 520 counties that started school between July 1 and September 4 this year and had at least a full week of case data from the school year. They only looked at counties where all the schools had the same mask policies. Of the 520 counties, 198 had a school mask requirement and 322 did not.