3 rules for when schools should keep masks

The CDC says some schools can drop mask mandates — but not all of them.

As the US quickly returns to a pre-pandemic normal, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now working to ensure that schools do the same — releasing new guidelines last week outlining, in part, when schools should still consider mandating masks.

The guidelines put the CDC at the center of yet another Covid-19 controversy. As everything from concerts to bars to movie theaters has started up again, parents have pushed for schools to pull back Covid-related restrictions, too, leading to protests and shouting over masks at public school board meetings. Elected officials have taken note, with eight states now banning school districts from imposing mask mandates.

But experts say there are good reasons to continue requiring masks in at least some schools, particularly those where the majority of the student body isn’t — or can’t be — vaccinated and in areas where the coronavirus is still spreading at high rates. The CDC guidelines reflect this expert guidance, arguing that universal masking requirements make sense in several circumstances.

One key consideration: Children under 12 can’t yet get the vaccines. Since the CDC still recommends that unvaccinated people wear masks, it follows that kids under 12 should wear masks in schools — and those around them should as well to mitigate the risks of Covid-19 spread to potentially vulnerable children as much as possible.

“The people who are at risk are those who are unvaccinated,” Katherine Auger, a health policy researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, told me. “And we know all kids under 12 are unvaccinated at this point.”