Tweaking the rules

Governor tries to reduce ‘over-quarantining’

As Arkansas — at least its government and health care institutions — has waged its fight against the spread of covid-19, there’s really never been a serious debate about what to do with infected people who show symptoms. Quarantine! We’d like to say that’s just good, common sense, but if the contentious discussions about the coronavirus and how to respond to it has taught us anything, it’s that there’s very little common about common sense. If covid-19 has demonstrated anything, it’s that it’s unpredictable and it spreads quite easily, even more so since it’s been allowed to linger long enough to mutate into the more aggressive delta variant. One infection can send a 35-year-old man with no serious health challenges to the hospital where he ends up on a ventilator fighting for his life. Another infection is revealed by a required test, shocking the person who tested positive because he’s showing no symptoms at all. Dealing with covid-19 would be so much easier if an infection triggered polka dots on people’s cheeks or turned one’s hair green. Unfortunately, you just can’t look at someone and tell whether the person’s infected or not. That, in part, has been a driving force behind the push for people to wear masks in settings where social distancing isn’t possible. Masks are not foolproof, but they do reduce the chances of passing on or breathing in the virus. School officials across the state, in following state-supported quarantining guidelines, recently began reporting their experiences of sending too many students and educators home because of exposure to someone who later turned out to the covid-positive. Springdale Superintendent Jared Cleveland, for example, sent Gov. Asa Hutchinson a letter Sept. 9 expressing his concern that the state guidelines were “over-quarantining” students. It wasn’t just wild speculation, either. Cleveland presented evidence. In his letter, Cleveland explained that his district last year identified 6,332 people who had “probable close contact” with a suspected case of covid-19 and met the state’s quarantining requirements. Those rules allowed people who have been exposed to remain in school if they’ve been fully vaccinated or if both the infected and exposed person were masked. Out of those 6,332 people quarantined, 104 ultimately tested positive for covid. That’s 1.6%. “As an education leader,” Cleveland told his school board, “I see this statistic as 6,228 individuals who were unnecessarily away from either school or work, impacting teaching and learning in our district.” Other area schools reported similar experiences, although percentages at a couple of districts edged higher to between 9 and 20%. Of course, educators like Cleveland want to guard against spreading covid-19, but their fundamental goal is to keep kids in class where learning happens better than through internet-based video or other remote connections. If 104 out of 6,332 quarantined students, staff and faculty is how many eventually got sick, it’s a pretty clear indication that the quarantine rules are too aggressive. The numbers so far this year show an even lower rate of infection.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson has apparently been listening. Last week he announced new options for public school students and employees to avoid having to quarantine after being near an infected person. The state exempts exposed people who are vaccinated or recovered people who had infections within the last three months from having to quarantine, as long as they have no symptoms. That mask exemption remains in place, as long as both people had them one when the exposure happened. And now, Hutchinson says there’s a “test to stay option” allowing students who don’t qualify for other exemptions to stay in school if they wear masks and submit to rapid coronavirus tests that come back negative. The other option would allow schools to avoid quarantines altogether if at least 70% of the staff and students are fully vaccinated. Will this get to the heart of over-quarantining? Certainly a high rate of vaccinations would (hint, hint). But it’s unlikely that any schools are at that 70% rate so far, especially since children 11 and younger cannot yet receive a vaccine. If nothing else, the pandemic has been a series of adjustments as government leaders as well as public health advisers tweak the rules and guidelines designed to reduce sickness. These adjustments don’t have to be all or nothing — masks or no masks, vaccines or no vaccines — but our school and government leaders, as well as the medical professionals, must continually adjust to what works and what doesn’t. The more state policy can allow students and their teachers to stay in school, without adversely affecting the spread of covid-19, the better off everyone will be. The governor’s new policies should help, but we doubt they’ll be the last word in the effort to keep kids and teachers in school and learning. Arkansas can ill afford to let the pandemic steal any more educational opportunities away from the people of the state.