Shots could end school mask rule
Lamont says vaccines for children may eventually leave mask regulations up to individual districts
The coming rollout of COVID-19 vaccines for children age 5-11 could eventually lead to the end of mask mandates in Connecticut schools, state officials say.
“At some point it’ll be up to the schools,” Gov. Ned Lamont said Wednesday. “We’ve got to make sure we have time to get most of those kids vaccinated. That’s important for the safety of the other kids.”
It is unclear, however, how soon that might happen. Though vaccines will likely be approved for young children in the coming weeks, it could take several months to get a critical mass of children in Connecticut vaccinated, especially given concerns that low incidence of serious COVID-19 illness among children may lead a number of parents to hold off on having their children vaccinated.
Max Reiss, a spokesperson for Lamont, said Wednesday that vaccines for young children could be a “game-changer” for COVID19 safety in schools — but only once a large portion of that group has gotten their shots.
“It’ll definitely take time,” Reiss said. “But every step closer we get when it comes to eligibility and availability with the vaccine is another day closer to no more masks being in classrooms.”
In the short-term, Reiss said, the governor has “nothing on the horizon” as far as repealing the masking requirement in schools.
Vaccine rollout plans
The White House Wednesday announced plans to distribute a reduced dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to that age group as early as the first week of November, pending approval from federal regulators.
Connecticut has already ordered 39,000 vaccine doses for children
last week and expects to have another 111,000 by the time the rollout begins, a spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health said Thursday.
Of those doses, a third will go to pharmacies, while the state will distribute the remaining two-thirds to more than 1,000 providers, including pediatricians, hospitals and community clinics. Providers say they are making plans to distribute vaccines to children 5-11 and will be ready to do so once given the go-ahead.
According to DPH, Connecticut has 277,630 total residents between age 5 and 11, making up about 8% of the state’s population.
For the second year in a row, Lamont has required all students and staff wear masks in school, though he has said he would lift that mandate if conditions change. The governor’s emergency powers are currently scheduled to expire Feb. 15, at which point the state legislature would need to pass any extension of the mask requirement.
At some point, Reiss said, Lamont could repeal the statewide mask requirement in schools while allowing local officials decide for themselves whether to mandate masks. Lamont has taken a similar approach regarding mask mandates at stores and other indoor locations.
For now, vaccination for kids
5-11 remains several weeks off, pending several layers of federal approval. An expert panel advising the Food and Drug Administration is expected to meet Oct. 26 to review relevant research, after which the FDA will decide whether to authorize vaccination for the new group. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel will then meet Nov. 2-3 to develop its own recommendation, which must be approved by CDC director Rochelle Walensky.
Lower demand?
If that process goes smoothly, Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines will be available for kids ages 5-11 in the following days.
Dr. Ohm Deshpande, vice president of population health at Yale New Haven Health, said Wednesday he doesn’t expect demand for COVID-19 vaccination among 5-11 year-olds to be as intense as it was for older groups, given the relatively low risk of serious illness for younger people and a potential fear of side effects.
Among groups currently eligible, those 12-15 have been the least likely to get vaccinated both nationally and in Connecticut, seemingly demonstrating the difficulty of reaching younger groups.
“It’s not clear what percentage of parents will get their kids vaccinated,” Deshpande said. “The proposition is a little different for younger kids. COVID tends to be a little less severe, and there is a concern for myocarditis that we saw with some of the other age groups. And the other thing is, parents are just more conservative with their kids, while they may be willing to take more risks for themselves.”
The CDC has monitored a connection between COVID-19 vaccination and myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, in male adolescents and young adults. Still, the agency continues to encourage eligible children to get vaccinated, advising that the risks of COVID-19 “far outweigh the potential risks of having a rare adverse reaction to vaccination.”
Still, Desphande said he expects significant interest in vaccination for children, which could be slowed initially by limited supply.
“We think when the approval inevitably does come over the next two weeks, the first two weeks are going to be a little bit of a crush,” he said.
Experts say vaccinating children, along with supplying booster shots for adults, will help drive down COVID-19 transmission and help the U.S. move past its lingering delta variant spike. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease specialist, said last week that promoting the vaccine to the newly eligible group will be key to ending the pandemic.
“If we can get the overwhelming majority of those 28 million children vaccinated, I think that would play a major role in diminishing the spread of infection in the community,” he said.