Stark board of health, medical director urge parents to mask kids as school approaches

Canton Repository - 8/12/2021

JACKSON TWP. - On the eve of the new school year, the Stark County Board of Health is urging parents to have their children heed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's masking guidance, while the agency's medical director is warning of serious consequences if it is ignored.

In a statement Thursday morning, the board said it "strongly recommends" the use of masks by everyone inside school buildings regardless of vaccination status.

More: Most Stark County schools say masks will be optional indoors, required on buses

More: Stark County parents becoming more vocal about school district mask policies

This is in line with CDC guidance that everyone in Stark and surrounding counties wear masks in indoor public spaces due to the increased transmissibility of the delta variant compared to previous strains of the virus.

The release notes that Senate Bill 22 restricts the department's ability to issue a mask mandate, leaving that authority to local school boards. All but one public school system, Canton City, and one charter school in the county have demurred, leaving masking as an option.

More: Superintendent Talbert: Canton City Schools adopt universal indoor mask policy

More: CDC now recommends indoor masking in Stark County as COVID-19 cases rise

The statement also highlights the federal mandate for masking on school buses and reminds parents and educators that the health department retains the legal authority to isolate those who contract COVID-19 and quarantine their close contacts.

Finally, the statement stresses that everyone who is 12 and older should receive the coronavirus vaccine for their health and the health of others.

"Not only on social media and in many news reports there is a lot of confusion based on this nationally and inside of our own state as to what the guidance actually is," Chris Cugini, a communications specialist for the Stark County Health Department, said Thursday. "(Our) goal is to always make things as clear as possible."

Dr. Maureen Ahmann, medical director of the Stark County Health Department, told the Repository Thursday that there could be significant disruptions to school if masking guidance is not followed. She is "absolutely" concerned about school outbreaks.

She noted that infection rates among school aged children have picked up as schools reopened in Georgia and cases are rising in Ohio.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reported that for the week ending Aug. 5 children accounted for 15% of cases nationwide.

Some doctors at children's hospitals, especially in the delta-stricken South, are reporting that the new variant may be making more children sicker than previous strains, but for now, much of the evidence remains anecdotal, and serious illness among children remains uncommon.

Children under 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine so they lack the protection from transmission and illness that the shots provide.

Ahmann, who is also a pediatrician, said that she has young patients who have suffered serious consequences from COVID-19 infections, including long-hauler systems like malaise and effects similar to those of a concussion.

Even if children do not become severely sick or die, "there is a whole world of hurt between alive and dead," she said.

She also pointed to the Ohio Department of Health guidance that require students to be isolated if they catch the virus, meaning they will miss school.

That guidance is another reason why students and teachers should mask up, she said. Under the ODH guidance for K-12 schools, students and teachers who are consistently wearing a mask and are exposed to someone with COVID-19 will not have to quarantine. Those who are maskless will have to stay home.

"Children belong in the classroom," Ahmann said. "We know that with masks there is a lot less interruptions in their schooling and their classroom time if everybody abides by that."

Cugini hopes parents, their students and teachers follow the recommendations and said that many people wore masks last year.

However, he said, "the fact of the matter is that there was a mask mandate in the state of Ohio at that time. There is no longer that mask mandate."