This was originally going to be a comment, but there’s too much in the article to pass up.
PHOENIX — It is something Maricopa County public health leaders say they have never seen throughout the pandemic. The number of COVID outbreaks in schools, doubling week to week, fueling concerns about the delta variant's impact on children.
“It dramatically shot up as soon as kids went back to school,” Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine told the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors during a county health update Monday.
She made a clear connection between our state’s rise in coronavirus cases and what is happening inside our schools.
“There is something about the delta strain that it affects children just as much as other people,” she said.
Wow … Too bad that the schools aren’t allowed to have mask mandates. You know, to save children’s lives?
Dr. Sunenshine says 1 in 6 COVID cases in the county now involves children under 12.
6% of hospitalizations are children, with the number doubling monthly.
The good news for our governor is that that trend won’t continue until the end of January … only because we’d be at 192%.
The county health department is currently monitoring 166 ongoing school outbreaks and found a clear difference in those with and without mask requirements.
“Schools that do not have a mask requirement are twice as likely to have an outbreak than schools that do,” Sunenshine said.
Yes, but I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. /s
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman hopes these developments will give communities and local lawmakers more perspective on how the divisive debate over masks is impacting the classroom.
How about lawmakers at the state level? Doug Ducey’s executive order is the only thing that is preventing schools from requiring their students to maks up.
ABC15 reached out to Governor Ducey’s staff several times Monday, to get his take on the latest Maricopa County data and the federal actions happening in other states banning mask mandates in schools.
So far, we have not heard back.
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a reply.
Although that might keep me from inhaling Covid.