The mandate goes further than\u00a0the CDC\u2019s most recent guidelines<\/a>, which only recommend mask wearing. \u201cFar too few school districts have chosen to follow the federal CDC prescriptions for keeping students and staff safe,\u201d the governor said. Pritzker said that he has legal authority to enforce his order.<\/p>\n The governor\u2019s mandate is a dramatic step back for students who, for more than a year, have suffered disproportionate harm from the restrictions imposed because of COVID. Since the virus emerged in March 2020, any concerns over the mental health of more than 2 million children were subordinated to the overall fear of the virus. The damage done by school shutdowns \u2013\u00a0anxiety<\/a>,\u00a0depression<\/a>\u00a0and even\u00a0suicide<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 has been harsh, especially considering the\u00a0near-zero risk<\/a>\u00a0COVID poses to students and the limited risk students pose to others in school settings.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s improved COVID status simply doesn\u2019t warrant a mask mandate for kids, and continued masking only serves as a constant reminder to students of the harm they\u2019ve experienced. Illinois students need a return to normalcy, and Gov. Pritzker has just single-handedly taken that away.<\/p>\n The situation in schools today has entirely changed from last year. While the Delta variant is a hurdle \u2013\u00a0more on the variant below \u2013 the reality is that deaths, hospitalizations and even cases are still 80 percent or more off of the pandemic\u2019s peak. A big reason for that is the availability of vaccines for those that want them \u2013 more than 90 percent of the elderly and a majority of adults in Illinois have had at least one shot. Teachers are overwhelmingly vaccinated, a result of being prioritized by the state early on in the vaccination roll out. Hospitals, too, are better prepared and treatment has markedly improved since last year.<\/p>\n The overall collapse in the severity of the crisis means school districts should return to making student mental health a top priority \u2013 and that includes making mask-wearing optional, not mandated as Pritzker demands.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s situation is dramatically different from where it was pre-vaccine.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n 1. All of\u00a0<\/b>COVID\u2019s key metrics<\/b><\/a>\u00a0have collapsed dramatically compared to their pre-vaccine peaks.\u00a0<\/b>Daily cases are down 80 percent compared to their November 2020 peak. Hospitalizations are down 84 percent. Most importantly, average daily COVID deaths are down to about ten a day, 95 percent lower than their peak in December of last year. Deaths have yet to show any real reaction to the increase in cases due to the Delta variant.<\/p>\n 2. Hospitals still have considerable capacity to deal with any increase in patients.<\/b>\u00a0That hospitals might get overwhelmed was a legitimate concern early on in the pandemic. But the last year and a half has shown Illinois\u2019 healthcare system has more than enough capacity to handle any increase in COVID patients.<\/p>\n About a quarter of Illinois\u2019 hospital beds\u00a0are currently empty<\/a>. That\u2019s about\u00a08,400 beds \u2013 more than the maximum 6,200 COVID patients that were hospitalized during the peak of the pandemic. Ditto for ICU beds, where 23 percent of the capacity is available (over 2,000 ICU beds are currently being used by non-COVID patients).<\/p>\n The Delta variant hasn\u2019t stopped vaccinations from working<\/b><\/p>\n The Delta variant deserves attention given it\u2019s the cause of the recent jump in COVID cases in Illinois and across the nation. The fact that the strain is more infectious is concerning, but the majority of the evidence so far has shown Delta to be no more dangerous than its predecessors \u2013 especially to the vaccinated.\u00a0From the WSJ editorial board<\/a>:<\/p>\n The CDC estimates there are about 35,000 symptomatic infections among 162 million vaccinated Americans a week. As cases have increased nationwide, so have breakthrough infections. This is to be expected. But recent studies show that vaccines are still 88% protective against symptomatic illness and 96% against hospitalization and death.<\/i><\/p>\n The good news is that in Illinois, \u201cbreakthrough\u201d cases remain rare with just 714 hospitalizations reported so far. Illinois IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in todays\u2019 press conference that of the 6 million vaccinated in Illinois, there have been 180 breakthrough deaths, or just 0.003 percent of the total. She recently\u00a0called breakthrough cases<\/a>\u00a0a \u201cunicorn.\u201d And Gov. Pritzker reiterated the safety of vaccines: \u201c\u2026the likelihood of a vaccinated person testing positive for COVID-19 remains extremely low and most importantly, these vaccines are doing what they are designed to do, essentially to eliminate the risk of hospitalization and death.\u201d<\/p>\n Nationwide<\/a>, 99 percent of current\u00a0hospitalizations<\/a>\u00a0for COVID are among\u00a0unvaccinated<\/i>\u00a0people, meaning that breakthrough variants have not yet posed a serious risk to those vaccinated.<\/p>\n What then is the point of mandating schoolchildren to wear masks?<\/p>\n It can\u2019t be to protect kids themselves from the virus. Vaccinated or not, CDC data shows the survival rate for those age 19 and under at 99.997%. Children are more likely to die of cancer, homicide, heart disease, accidents or suicide than from COVID, as Wirepoints\u00a0has shown previously<\/a>.<\/p>\n And it can\u2019t be to protect the vaccinated adult population. Government officials remain adamant that the vaccines work in protecting against serious illness and death. Pritzker and Ezike during their recent press conference reiterated that vaccines \u201care the best tool\u201d against COVID.<\/p>\n That leaves unvaccinated adults \u2013 the vast majority who are unvaccinated by choice. It makes no sense to inflict masks on schoolchildren to protect a segment of the population who have taken on that risk by choice.<\/p>\n Children have suffered greatly over the past year<\/b><\/p>\n Children have suffered disproportionately not from COVID itself, but from the restrictions related to COVID since the beginning of the pandemic. In fact, the data has shown almost from the very beginning that the risks of COVID are dwarfed by the long-term emotional, physical and developmental harms that restrictions have imposed on\u00a0all<\/i><\/b>\u00a0children.<\/p>\n Much<\/a>\u00a0has already been written about\u00a0the damage done<\/a>\u00a0over the past year and a half due to remote learning and social distancing: the crippling impact of\u00a0isolation<\/a>, increased\u00a0anxiety<\/a>, the loss of critical\u00a0development time<\/a>, the physical harm of\u00a0less exercise<\/a>, the increased risk of\u00a0teen suicide<\/a>, unreported child\u00a0abuse<\/a>, and more. Many of those issues have coalesced into a crisis for youth, leading, for example, to some of the many tragic examples below:<\/p>\n Now with this latest mask mandate we\u2019re risking a permanent disruption of development for a generation of children. Younger kids \u2013 again, those least likely to contract or spread COVID \u2013 have had the development of key social and communication skills disrupted by mask-wearing.\u00a0From the WSJ:<\/a><\/p>\n \u201c\u2026the evidence is overwhelming that masking can harm children\u2019s developmental progress. Look at the World Health Organization\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>guidance document<\/i><\/a>\u00a0on child masking, which says that up to age 5, masking children may harm the achievement of childhood developmental milestones. For children between 6 and 11, the same document says that mask guidance should consider the \u201cpotential impact of mask-wearing on learning and psychosocial development.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n It is up to parents and officials to ensure that more unnecessary harm isn\u2019t inflicted on students in the name of \u201can abundance of caution.\u201d<\/p>\n The mandate goes too far<\/b><\/p>\n Unfortunately, most, if not all, school districts are likely to go along with the Governor and Board of Education\u2019s new mask mandate. \u201cISBE has the ability to remove recognition status for a school if it is not following the mandates,\u201d the governor warned in the masking press conference.<\/p>\n But officials that are positive about their students\u2019 vaccination status and the overall health of their communities should be confident in challenging the state\u2019s overbroad and overreaching restrictions.<\/p>\n Schools should put the mental wellness of students first by making mask-wearing optional. After a year of incalculable harm, we owe it to our kids to return their classrooms to normal.<\/p>\n Masks are a constant reminder to students of the harm they\u2019ve experienced. A return to normalcy is the antidote.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wirepoints.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Illinois-COVID-deaths-are-down-95-off-their-Dec-2020-peak.png\")
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<\/a>3. A vast majority of Illinois most-vulnerable populations, and a majority of adults, have been vaccinated.<\/b>\u00a0Vaccines weren\u2019t even considered a possibility when school started last year. Today, almost\u00a092 percent of Illinoisans<\/a>\u00a0aged 65 or older have received at least one vaccination jab along with 75 percent of everyone over the age of 18.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wirepoints.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Illinois-vaccination-statistics.png\")
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