Virginia governor challenges school mask mandates as child infections spike

WASHINGTON (TND) — Within hours of taking office Saturday, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin moved to bar schools in the state from requiring students to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, claiming “a lack of consensus on the costs and benefits of mask-wearing for children,” but the executive order has already generated pushback from parents and experts.

"A child whose parent has elected that he or she is not subject to a mask mandate should not be required to wear a mask under any policy implemented by a teacher, school, school district, the Department of Education, or any other state authority," Youngkin’s order stated.

The order takes effect Jan. 24, but several school districts have already signaled they plan to defy it. Officials in Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, and Richmond announced they intend to keep mask mandates in place.

The governor has threatened to take unspecified action to force schools to comply. However, Virginia law requires schools to adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance “to the maximum extent practicable,” and legal experts say that might limit Youngkin’s authority to lift mandates since the agency recommends universal masking in school buildings.

The order has drawn mixed reactions from Virginia parents, with some seeing the removal of mask requirements as long overdue and others worried about increased infection risks for their children. While Youngkin campaigned on granting parents more freedom over school policies, public health experts fear the decision is premature at a time when the nation is grappling with record numbers of child COVID-19 infections.

“Any successful comprehensive plan to protect children against the omicron variant and other future variants of COVID-19 includes being up to date on COVID-19 vaccination and consistent wearing of face mask during times of infection surge,” the Virginia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics said Monday.

Experts acknowledge it is unrealistic to expect school mask mandates to remain in place indefinitely, but they caution the height of a surge is the wrong time to consider scaling back safety measures. Although COVID-19 cases in children are typically mild, the omicron variant has driven a spike in pediatric infections and hospitalizations in the U.S. and elsewhere.

“It is a bad time to be easing off mitigation measures,” said Dr. Timothy Murphy, an infectious disease expert at the University at Buffalo. “Obviously, the omicron variant is surging. It is particularly worrisome in schools because so many kids are unvaccinated.”

Children ages 5 and older are eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines, but uptake has been slower than for older demographics. According to the CDC, about 54% of children ages 12 to 17 and fewer than 18% of those 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated.

The emergence of the new variant has complicated a deeply polarized debate over wearing masks in general and particularly over requiring them in schools. Many public health experts have warned the cloth masks children typically wear in classrooms provide minimal protection against the more infectious omicron variant.

The CDC updated its masking guidance last week to encourage the use of “properly fitted respirators” like N95 and KN95 masks, but it did not entirely dismiss the value of other coverings. Officials have often voiced concerns that requiring the less comfortable N95s or KN95s could lead to fewer people wearing masks at all.

“It is important to remember that any mask is better than no mask,” the agency stressed.

Murphy agreed with the recommendation that a “tight-fitting” mask is best and cloth masks generally are not as effective. Still, he stressed broad use of cloth masks in concert with other precautions like testing, hand-washing, and better ventilation can likely help limit outbreaks in classrooms.

“Masks are part of the overall strategy to try to mitigate the spread of the virus in schools,” Murphy said.

Critics argue some scientific studies often cited to justify school masking are flawed, and other efforts to measure the effectiveness of masks in classrooms have proven inconclusive. A review of research released by the British government earlier this month did not establish that requiring face coverings had a statistically significant impact.

Some studies conducted earlier in the pandemic indicated schools that required masks were less prone to infection outbreaks than those that did not. Widespread use of masks in many school districts does not appear to have impeded the spread of the delta and omicron variants in recent months, though.

Those who oppose masking in schools maintain covering the faces of students and teachers hinders learning and language development and causes an array of physical and mental health challenges. Evidence supporting those contentions is similarly slim, but some foreign health authorities have been more reluctant to encourage children to wear masks than those in the U.S.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control does not recommend masks for children under 12, noting they might not wear them properly. The World Health Organization opposes mask requirements for children 5 and under, but it says those 12 and older should be subject to the same rules as adults.

“I just hope that Arlington County Schools and the rest of the school systems around the Commonwealth of Virginia use this week to listen to parents and get prepared because we granted parents the option of deciding whether they want their child to wear a mask or not - and we are going to protect that right," Youngkin said in response to resistance from local officials.

Based on trends seen in Britain and South Africa, federal officials are hopeful the omicron wave could soon peak and cases may decline quickly in the coming weeks. If that is the case, Murphy suggested the early spring could be a more responsible time for schools to begin lifting mandates, but much will depend on infection levels in affected communities.

“There’s no specific magic number or metric that can tell us when to back off masks and other mitigation measures...,” he said. “While the virus is surging the way it is, I think masks are important.”