Posted on 02/26/2022 12:44:00 PM PST by lightman
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Feb. 25 it is no longer requiring students and others on school buses to wear masks, but is keeping the mask mandate for all other forms of public transportation in place.
Effective Friday, “CDC does not require wearing of masks on buses or vans operated by public or private school systems, including early care and education/child care programs,” the agency said in an update on its website.
The CDC typically only doles out guidance but under federal law, a top official at the agency on Jan. 29, 2021, issued an order requiring masks on “public transportation conveyances” and at “transportation hubs.”
The order covers airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, and taxis traveling within the United States, or leaving or entering the country. It also covers airports and other transportation hubs such as bus terminals.
The CDC on June 10, 2021, said it was exempting people from wearing masks outdoors while on a conveyance or at a hub, the only change it had announced before Friday’s update.
“School systems at their discretion may choose to require that people wear masks on buses or vans,” the CDC said.
The agency didn’t respond to emailed questions, but said it was exempting school buses and others buses and vans linked to children to align with masking guidance it updated earlier in the day.
CDC officials abruptly switched earlier Friday from using a counting method that painted 95 percent of the country as under high or substantial risk from COVID-19 to one that counts just 37 percent at high risk, with none at substantial risk.
In the counties not deemed at high risk, the CDC no longer recommends mask-wearing in indoor public settings.
The change is important because the risk assessment was cited by many local officials when they imposed or extended mask mandates.
Even before the changes, a number of school districts and counties said they were halting masking requirements. Later, additional mandates were rescinded.
“Effective today, the CDC no longer requires wearing masks on buses operated by public school systems. As such, masks will now be optional for students and adults on PWCS school buses,” Prince William County Public Schools in Virginia said in a statement.
“Effective Monday, February 28, students are no longer required to wear masks on buses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has come out with new guidance that no longer requires masks to be worn on buses or vans operated by public or private school systems,” the Indian Prairie School District in Illinois added.
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the updated guidance means “we can continue to keep schools safely open while allowing for educators and parents to get back to focusing on what is most important: our students’ futures,” adding, “Moving forward, districts should continue to work with local health experts, parents, and educators to identify what works best for their communities and consider the appropriate mitigation strategies needed to keep students and staff safe.”
The National Education Association (NEA), a large teachers union that pressured the CDC into recommending masks in schools, cautiously welcomed the change.
“While the NEA is encouraged by the new guidance, local governments must bring educators to the table with our in-school experience when determining how to keep school communities safe—including those with disabilities who are more vulnerable to the exposure and effects of COVID-19,” Becky Pringle, president of the group, said.
Now, to get the Karen school board folks to FINALLY adhere to this.
Texas has been wide open for biz...no masks, for a year....yet, I still see school buses, full of masked kiddos, on board. Abuse, indeed.
95% to 37% high covid risk overnight. This is the problem when a medical organization becomes political.
The left is going to be kicking and screaming! They like the masks!
Decisions made by dart toss.
This won’t accomplish much with the Karen/snowflake parents insistent on the masks.
And just like that, the science changed.
If the CDC has legal authority to order such a thing then that authority needs to be revoked.
I’d be interested to see what authority the CDC has to require masks anywhere beside their own buildings.
Maybe it was some other entity doing so.
They can recommend, not require.
Agree!!
Covid was real but became a complete hoax from the moment Democrats suddenly realized they could politically harness Covid to destroy the Trump economy and thus to get Trump. And it worked.
And then the Liberals simply became deliriously intoxicated with the power of fear and using that grip of fear to bend societies to their power and whims. The absolute proof of this is the fact that almost every data point has been either hidden or overtly manipulated for the specific purpose of maintaining the ruse. Further proof is when it was claimed that the testing data could not be released for 74 years. And finally, the millions of illegals streaming across the border and flown all over the country. No vaccinations and required vaccinations. That alone, proved this was all a political hoax.
The scary point is how easy it was for the government to collude with the media and the tech barons. Of more concern, if possible, is how easily the populace simply acquiesced and surrendered their rights and handed their complete personal faith over to the “government experts” with almost no critical thinking whatsoever.
The CDC should be able to do nothing more than recommend.
Some of these masked people are very scary. LOL
They take their job... oh wait, it’s not their job, very
seriously.
Honestly, I think there’s going to have to be a lot more
slobs lying flat on their back looking up seeing stars
before this whole thing is over.
Some absurd insanity being lifted or you could say some insane absurdity being lifted. Oh my! A masked child is abuse.
Yes it is!
This will continue, election season is coming.
I’m looking forward to the masking holdouts who will be in a complete panic soon.
Mayor Lighthead signed an executive order forcing Chicago School kids to wear masks everywhere on school grounds until August 29.
...what is the status face-diaper wearing in airport terminals...? I assume that edict [sic] is still in place.... as well as wearing these hideous things on airliners themselves......what a crock.....
It was all arbitrary psychotic “Simon says” nonsense.
Must be an election year...after being re-elected they go back to a full blown hysteria virus mandate!! Bank on it!
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