- April 25, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending universal indoor masking for all teachers and students, regardless of their vaccination status, Volusia County Schools appears to be moving ahead with an optional mask policy for the upcoming school year.
At the Volusia County School Board meeting on Tuesday, July 27, board members were given an update on the current COVID-19 conditions by Volusia County Health Department Administrator Patricia Boswell, who presented stark statistics illustrating the recent sharp rise of cases due to variants.
In July so far, Boswell said 820 cases have been reported in school-aged children. That accounts for about 26% of the total cases in children 5-14, of which there have been 3,095 since the start of the pandemic. On Aug. 9, 2020, a month before school began, there were 544 reported cases in children under 18.
Florida has experienced a 61% increase of cases, jumping from 5,585 cases reported two weeks ago to 73,199 cases reported in the last week. In Volusia, cases have increased by 75%, jumping from 1,705 cases reported two weeks ago to 2,976 cases reported this week.
The current seven-day positivity rate is 22.75%. Back in June when the School Board made the decision to make masks optional, the positivity rate was around 4%.
As for vaccinations, Boswell reported that only 54% of Volusia's eligible population is vaccinated with at least one dose. In children, that number falls dramatically: Only 24% of those 15-19 years old and 15% of children 12-14 are vaccinated. There are also six active outbreaks in summer camps.
In order to ensure schools are safe, she recommended the district follow the CDC guidelines on universal masking and 3-foot social distancing in classroom.
"The presence of these variants and the large number of unvaccinated residents, the substantial community transmission — those are the factors that are contributing to it," Boswell said.
School Board member Jamie Haynes questioned Boswell's data and said she'd spoken to local researchers out off a DeLand clinical research facility who have provided her with other data regarding vaccination effectiveness, hospitalizations, ventilators and the difference in symptoms between the "original" COVID and the variants. She never identified these researchers, or their facility, by name.
However, she said she would not be changing her mind regarding face coverings.
“We already chose for masks to be optional," she said." I’m not changing my mind, because number one — children do not belong to us… The medical decisions for my children when they were of school age and or my grandchildren at this time belong to the rights of their parents.”
Haynes also said no one is talking about antibodies, and their measure of protection; she said her elderly parents, who both caught COVID-19 last year, were advised by their doctor not to take the vaccine because they still had antibodies.
“If you’ve already had COVID, you’re truly in better shape than anybody else because you’ve got antibodies," Haynes said.
“Except for the 907 individuals who’ve lost their life,” Boswell replied.
“OK, I don’t want anybody to lose their life, but the reality is every day someone loses their life," Haynes said.
