At a couple of points during the lengthy public comment session at the August 10 Archuleta School District (ASD) Board meeting, Board president Bruce Dryburgh asked if anyone in the audience wanted to address the Board in support of mask-wearing.
There were no takers. It appeared that nearly the entire audience had come expressly to show support for anti-mask sentiments.
Sentiments such as these, expressed by Ellen Schmidt, one of a dozen audience members who asked to address the Board last Tuesday:
“The bottom line is, that our children are suffering. Masks can cause fear, anxiety, panic attacks and stress. Stress alone exacerbates all kinds of illnesses. Disturbed respiratory physiology in children can have long-term disease-relevant consequences. Slightly elevated CO2 levels are known to increase heart rate, blood pressure, headache, fatigue, and concentration disorders.
“According to experts, masks block the foundation of human communication and the exchange of emotion, and not only hinder learning, but deprive children of the positive effects of smiling and laughing.
“Vaccines are harmful, too. If teachers are afraid of getting sick, wear a mask. Get vaccinated. Stay three feet away. Stop making it a child’s responsibility to protect you. It’s just not worth it to find out — hindsight is 20/20 — that our children will end up with adverse effects for life… or that you may never hold a child or grandchild because your family member is sterile…
“Hugging, in itself, is powerful. It’s a powerful way of healing. Among other things, hugs strengthen the immune system and boost oxytocin levels, which heals feelings of loneliness, isolation and anger, build trust and a sense of safety, lift seratonin levels, elevating mood and creating happiness. We need four a day for survival, eight a day for maintenance and twelve a day for growth…”
As noted previously, in Part Two, the audience members who addressed the Board on Tuesday spoke on one general theme — basically, that the School District should not make mask-wearing mandatory. And indeed, we had heard from Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza, prior to the ‘public comment’ session, that the majority of Pagosa parents and ASD staff agreed that masks ought to be optional at the start of the school year. She also noted that, for the moment, the District faces no legal requirements, from the state government, to enforce any particular COVID policy.
As I see it, the arguments coming from the opponents of mask-wearing fell into three general categories.
1. The government, which includes public schools, has no legal right to force health mandates on the citizenry. Health care is a private matter, freely decided by each individual family.
2. A compelling scientific case can be made for both sides of the mask issue, but the best science recommends against mask-wearing.
3. Government-based vaccination and mask requirements have driven a wedge into the American social landscape and divided the nation into polarized ‘Us vs Them’ camps.
The first argument is somewhat flawed. Health care is generally treated as a private matter, but legally speaking, the State of Colorado has put laws in place that grant extensive enforcement powers to public health agencies, whenever an ‘epidemic’ has been identified and declared as such. And in fact, an epidemic situation was declared in March, 2020. That declaration, and the resulting powers handed to public health agencies, caused dramatic changes to the social and economic landscape.
The third argument is interesting. Did government pandemic policies cause a division in our nation? Or did that division already exist, based on non-COVID issues such as climate change, abortion rights, immigration, militarism, racism, gay rights, capitalism, entitlements, education…?
So many issues on which we can disagree.
Like so many of us, I find Number 2 — the scientific question — to be a fascinating one. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control made yet another scientific ‘about-face’ with the release, on August 6, of a study of ‘breakthrough infections’ in Massachusetts. You can download the 4-page summary here. The study was conducted by a number of people who might be classified as scientists.
Catherine M. Brown, DVM; Johanna Vostok, MPH; Hillary Johnson, MHS; Meagan Burns, MPH1; Radhika Gharpure, DVM; Samira Sami, DrPH; Rebecca T. Sabo, MPH; Noemi Hall, PhD; Anne Foreman, PhD; Petra L. Schubert, MPH1; Glen R. Gallagher PhD; Timelia Fink1; Lawrence C. Madoff, MD; Stacey B. Gabriel, PhD; Bronwyn MacInnis, PhD; Daniel J. Park, PhD; Katherine J. Siddle, PhD; Vaira Harik, MS; Deirdre Arvidson, MSN; Taylor Brock-Fisher, MSc; Molly Dunn, DVM; Amanda Kearns; A. Scott Laney, PhD
The study reported that 74% of the newly identified COVID cases occurred among people who were reportedly ‘fully vaccinated’. The so-called Delta variant was identified in about 90% of the people who had their samples sequenced. From the study’s summary:
Approximately three quarters (346; 74%) of cases occurred in fully vaccinated persons (those who had completed a 2-dose course of mRNA vaccine [Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna] or had received a single dose of Janssen [Johnson & Johnson] vaccine ≥14 days before exposure)… Overall, 274 (79%) vaccinated patients with breakthrough infection were symptomatic. Among five COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized, four were fully vaccinated; no deaths were reported.
The scientific reaction to this study, as reported in the mainstream media, was mixed. Some stories noted that, in locations where the Delta variant is active, you appear to be just as likely to catch a COVID infection from a vaccinated person as from an unvaccinated person… so maybe everyone should be wearing masks? Other versions of the story claimed that vaccination was still the best option, going forward, even if it might appear less ineffective against the Delta variant.
In this regard, I find the comments made by Ellen Schmidt, quoted above, to be especially pertinent. Modern post-industrial America has become utterly subservient to science, numbers, and statistics. We have been encouraged to believe that the person who lives the most number of years wins the prize; that the community with the lowest infection rate wins the trophy…
To believe that intimacy doesn’t matter. That smiles don’t matter. That hugs don’t matter.