PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As daily COVID-19 case counts continue to fall and conversations about lifting school mask mandates heat up, a top policy expert says CDC guidance is important, but it’s not a simple “plug-and-play” or “one-size-fits-all.”
Dr. David Rubin heads up the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Policy Lab, which has offered guidance to help decision-makers like school boards.
Listen to a full interview with David Rubin, director of the CHOP Policy Lab, on school masking guidance in the podcast episode below:
He said masks are proven to be effective at slowing the spread of the virus, but they aren’t risk-free.
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“It's been a long haul and for families, kids with learning issues, kids with mental health issues or isolation," said Dr. Rubin. "Those issues now become more paramount."
He said CDC recommendations are purposefully broad as they cover the entire country, and that it’s the CDC’s job to eliminate risk rather than explain how to manage it.
"It's up to these local schools and their boards to weigh how to incorporate that information in terms of the risk tolerance of the community and the greater needs of that community," he said.
Dr. Rubin said that when the level of virus is high, mask requirements make sense, but there's a different equation when case totals and hospitalizations fall as they recently have.
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“The calculus has changed," he said.
"There's a lot more weighted to the concerns about the continued risk of significant restrictions that prohibit movement of kids through schools, or take choices away from families in terms of what two years of masking and required masking schools may have been.”
Dr. Rubin adds that big-city schools like those in the School District of Philadelphia tend to have older, more crowded buildings, so their calculus will be different than a newer, more spread-out suburban school.
“I think what I'm recognizing is we need to return these choices locally, and then help schools weigh the trends in these issues and in finding the solution that works for their community," he said.
