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As many students across Maryland return to school this week while the delta variant continues to drive the state鈥檚 COVID-19 case rates higher, requiring masks inside school buildings is the 鈥渓owest hanging fruit鈥� schools could take to protect against the coronavirus, public health experts told lawmakers on Monday.
鈥淐hildren with masks on play just as hard and learn just as well as children without masks, but they鈥檙e protected from acquiring COVID and spreading it to others,鈥� Karen L. Kotloff, a professor of pediatrics in the University of Maryland Medical System, told the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee.
鈥淚 think that is the lowest hanging fruit and the easiest intervention that can be done,鈥� she continued. 鈥淢asks are easy.鈥�
Meanwhile, other measures such as requiring that students and teachers to get vaccinated or for students to maintain physical distance in classrooms are more difficult, she continued.
Mandating masks is a low-cost way to reduce COVID-19 transmission rates, said Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Monday鈥檚 legislative meeting came after the Maryland State Board of Education聽聽in a hastily-scheduled meeting last week. Previously, the decision to issue masking mandates for students, teachers and staff was left to local school boards in reopening decisions to be approved by Maryland State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury.
By law, the General Assembly鈥檚 Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review (AELR) has to approve the State Board of Education鈥檚 emergency regulation for it to go into effect. The committee is slated to vote on the matter at a public meeting on Sept. 14, allowing some school systems to start the school year without requiring masks.
Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan (R) has the ability to waive the 10-business-day waiting period required before the AELR committee can vote on the emergency regulation, but Hogan said Monday that he does not plan to do so.
鈥淚鈥檓 not going to create a state of emergency to waive the ability for legislators to hear from the citizens, they just have to do the process that they normally do,鈥� Hogan聽听奥叠贵贵-罢痴.
Republican lawmakers also implored the committee to not rush the 10-day review period to allow for a deliberative process.
鈥淲e have serious concerns regarding the State Board of Education鈥檚 unprecedented usurpation of local control in mandating masking for students across Maryland,鈥� a statement from the House Minority Caucus said.
During the Monday briefing, Sen. Jason C. Gallion (R-Cecil and Harford) suggested that only children with underlying medical conditions should wear N95s 鈥� tight-fitting, high-filtration medical masks 鈥� 鈥渋nstead of making all children wear these cloth masks.鈥�
But Kotloff highlighted that healthy children could also contract the coronavirus.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to have an underlying condition to have a fatal COVID infection, and so how do you know which child that鈥檚 going to be 鈥� to protect that child鈥檚 life?鈥� she said. Furthermore, the more a virus passes back and forth among a population, the more a virus can mutate and become more virulent, she continued.
鈥淧retty much anything that can happen to an adult can happen to a child,鈥� Kotloff said. Longer-term effects of contracting the coronavirus can also afflict children, such as cognitive impairments, fatigue and chronic respiratory issues.
Nationally, the number of children with COVID-19 grew from 26,000 to 200,000 in the last week, according to Kotloff.
Sen. Bryan Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel) questioned whether it was a good policy to have a 鈥渙ne size fits鈥� approach if different areas in the state have different transmission rates.
But Sen. Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince George鈥檚) underscored that every county in the state currently has a high or substantial transmission rate of 50-100 or more cases per 100,000.
鈥淲hen everything is substantial, then I think it makes sense that the policy is fairly uniform,鈥� Sell said. 鈥淲hen things come down, people can make some more of those nuanced decisions at lower levels.鈥�
Mandating Vaccinations?
Montgomery and Prince George鈥檚 counties public school systems are requiring teachers and staff to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or to undergo weekly tests.
But mandating vaccines for children will be harder than mandating masks, said Daniel Salmon, the director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. If a vaccine mandate is implemented before it has widespread public support, it risks backlash which can significantly undermine the immunization effort.
However, the bar is different for teachers and staff, he continued. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a workplace mandate, which is different. And teachers get to choose whether or not they want to be teachers and where they work and it鈥檚 an occupational hazard, so I think it鈥檚 a lower bar,鈥� he said.
When people feel forced to get inoculated, 鈥渢hat鈥檚 frightening for people,鈥� Kotloff said. Allowing people to express their fears about the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as informing them of the science is the best way to move forward, she continued.
