Biden administration officials are under fire for government recommendations that children and staff wear masks at all times at summer camps despite evidence that the risk of transmission outdoors is minimal.
“I wouldn’t call [federal guidelines] excessive … but they certainly are conservative,” Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser, said Wednesday on Today. “And I think what you’re going to start to see is, really, in real-time, continually reevaluating that for its practicality.”
VACCINATED ADULTS CAN GO OUTDOORS WITHOUT A MASK, CDC SAYS
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines for summer camp safety less than two weeks ago that said children should maintain 3 feet of distance between others in their own age group and 6 feet between those in other cohorts. Staff should also maintain a 6-foot distance between themselves as well as younger campers.
The CDC also said that all people in camp facilities should wear masks at all times, with exceptions for eating, drinking, and swimming. Campers should also avoid indoor sports that involve close contact with others.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky also went on the defensive Wednesday during the White House coronavirus response team briefing, telling reporters, “What we’re really trying to avoid in this camp guidance is what we saw in outbreaks and camps last summer.”
“If you have 5 [year-olds], 10-year-olds who are on a soccer field all in front of the same soccer ball, we’re trying to make sure that there are not a lot of heavy breathing around a singular soccer ball with five kids around it at the same time,” she added.
Still, public health experts have said the risk of transmission outdoors is very low. Just last week, the CDC announced that vaccinated adults could go outdoors without wearing a mask, citing evidence that being outdoors poses less of a risk of infection than in enclosed spaces such as homes, restaurants, and manufacturing plants. With that in mind, outdoor activities are gearing up to resume over the summer, such as outdoor baseball games at ballparks and state fairs.
“[The CDC] will continually reevaluate that. … It looks a bit strict, a bit stringent, but that’s the reason why they keep looking at that and trying to reevaluate, literally in real-time, whether or not that’s the practical way to go,” Fauci said.
Republicans have criticized the CDC this year for its conservative guidelines regarding children’s safety, arguing that scientific evidence shows the risk of transmission among children is so low that they should not have to wear masks.
Conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson, for instance, equated making children as young as two wear masks to “child abuse” during his April 26 show. The comment sparked backlash immediately from healthcare professionals and others on the Left who argued the comment would invite harassment for parents following the federal guidelines.
GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, meanwhile, drafted a letter with 28 other Republican lawmakers last month to Walensky, demanding the CDC explain how it concluded that children as young as two should wear masks. Among those who co-signed on the letter were Ted Cruz and Rand Paul in the Senate, as well as Paul Gosar and Louie Gohmert in the House.
The Republican writers gave Walensky a deadline of May 6 to answer their questions.
Walensky insisted earlier on Wednesday that children participating in contact sports should continue to wear masks both indoors and outdoors after criticism from the editor-in-chief of JAMA Pediatrics, the leading journal for pediatric medicine, who told New York Magazine this week that CDC masking guidelines for children are “unfairly draconian.”
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“Yes, there’s decreased infection risk outside, but if you’re all breathing heavily on top of the singular soccer ball, that has the potential [to cause outbreaks],” Walensky said on CNN.
The CDC guidance also recommends that all eligible camp staff, volunteers, children attending the camps, and their parents get vaccinated as soon as possible. Trials are underway to determine the safety and efficacy of vaccines in young people, but no vaccine has been authorized for use in children under 16. Pfizer announced earlier this week that it expects the Food and Drug Administration to authorize the use of the two-shot vaccine in adolescents ages 12 to 15 as soon as next week. Meanwhile, the company will seek federal authorization to use its coronavirus vaccine in children age 2 to 11 in September.
