Masks in schools for now, junk science out

Wednesday’s Palm Beach County School Board meeting showed why Florida school districts should ignore Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran’s call to make mask-wearing voluntary next year.

Speakers opposed to the district’s mandatory mask policy based their case on demagoguery and junk science. The lowest of several low points came when one woman accused the board of being “a tool of tyrannical government” and quoted a phrase from the Nazi era.

One woman claimed — falsely — that masks cause lung cancer in children. Another claimed — falsely — that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which issues guidelines on COVID-19 safety for school districts, has been wrong about everything, during the pandemic and before. Still another claimed — falsely — that the CDC has overcounted COVID19 deaths.

School boards across Florida regularly have heard demands to end their mask mandates. But Corcoran fed this anger with his letter last week.

“The data shows us,” Corcoran wrote, “that districts’ face-covering policies do not impact the spread of the virus. … Broad, sweeping mandatory face-covering policies serve no remaining good at this point in our schools.”

South Florida administrators scrambled at first, thinking that Corcoran — like Gov. Ron DeSantis — might have issued a sweeping order with no warning. Instead, the letter amounted to a suggestion.

Superintendents in Broward and

Palm Beach counties responded properly. They reiterated plans to require all students back on campus in August, and they refused for now to drop their mask mandates.

Frank Barbieri chairs the Palm Beach County School Board. He told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, “It’s too soon to decide.” The district will continue to follow guidance from the CDC and the Florida Department of Health.

The current CDC guidance, which the agency updated last month, is that elementary school students can be three feet from each other — regardless of community transmission levels — if mask use is “universal.” Unless the transmission rate is high, middle and high school students also can be three feet apart with universal mask wearing.

If community transmission is high, however, the CDC recommends a separation of six feet. The agency notes that older students are more likely to be exposed to COVID-19 and more likely to spread it than younger students.

We asked Corcoran’s office which “data” he used. A spokeswoman said the department’s comparison of mask policies and positive test rates showed that districts’ “best practices for health and safety” made schools safer than their communities.

“The review of this data,” the spokeswoman said, “showed no link between face-mask policies and counties’ positivity rates.” She added, “Endless research continues to show that staying home when you are sick is the best proven method.”

Keeping students and teachers from getting sick at all works even better. As for Corcoran’s conclusion, it relied on the department comparing the 27 counties that made masks optional with the 40 that required them.

Those 27 counties are mostly Florida’s smallest and most rural. Positivity rates there consistently have been lower than in large counties. The department agrees with the CDC that most cases among students come from outside the school. Masks, however, protect students and faculty from such transmission.

Corcoran and DeSantis, who picked Corcoran to be commissioner, regularly pick fights with school districts, especially urban ones. Corcoran tried to order a return to in-person learning this year and then threatened — before backing off — to withhold state money for students who didn’t return by February.

So the timing of Corcoran’s letter on masks is ironic. Broward and Palm Beach have announced that all students must return to campus in August or enroll in Florida Virtual School. While acknowledging that some parents remain fearful, we agree with this decision.

Vaccines also encourage a return to in-classroom learning. Unfortunately, vaccine hesitancy remains among some communities of color and resistance remains among science-denying Republican men. COVID-19 variants are increasing rapidly in Florida. That news came out despite DeSantis’ attempt to suppress it, an attempt that only ended after a public-records lawsuit by our sister paper, the Orlando Sentinel.

The most reckless argument by the anti-maskers is that face coverings don’t work at all. Happily, it’s also the argument most easily debunked.

Public health experts worried that last winter could bring a “twindemic” of COVID-19 and influenza. Instead, the flu season basically didn’t happen.

Why? Obviously, more people were working from home. But the same protections against COVID-19 — including masks — also protect against the flu.

Barbieri said public opinion “is probably split, like everything else in this country.” But one speaker at Wednesday’s meeting is worth quoting.

She identified herself as firefighter who caught COVID-19 and is a “long-hauler,” spending “85 percent” of her time in bed. She worries about sending her child back to middle school. Mostly, though, she criticized people “who do not take this virus seriously.”

Start with DeSantis, whose attitude toward the pandemic has become feckless as he pitches himself to the Trump base. Corcoran often channels the governor, and his letter seems more about politics than sound science.