Will a vaccine against the omicron variant be necessary?
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(CNN) -
As the omicron variant spreads across the United States, leaving many people sick and forced into quarantine, teachers and families are weighing the risks of allowing children to resume face-to-face classes.
The unprecedented spike in infections has caused widespread staff shortages and left more than 145,000 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the United States as of Tuesday, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). a record number for the pandemic.
Amid the rise in infections, which has affected the return to classes after the end-of-the-year holidays, those working in educational services have hotly debated whether in-person learning is currently feasible.
Health experts are also urging more vaccination, with only 17% of children ages 5 to 11 and 54% of children ages 12 to 17 being immunized so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease Association (CDC).
One expert told CNN that people should stop thinking that the virus cannot affect children, because evidence to the contrary is mounting, while another said that it is safe enough to send children to school. .
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The first, Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Center for Vaccine Education at Philadelphia Children's Hospital, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday that children are becoming infected at a much higher rate than in 2020.
“Of the children who have been hospitalized or go to the intensive care unit or die, about a third of them have no comorbidities.
Therefore, it can happen to anyone, ”said Offit.
"This virus is not a game. It is not influenza or parainfluenza or other typical respiratory viruses. This virus can cause you to produce an immune response in your own blood vessels, which means that you can have heart, brain, kidney, lung and liver diseases" , He said.
The second expert, Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings Program at Harvard's TH Chan School of Public Health, told CNN's Erin Burnett on Tuesday that the data shows the risks to children are very low, and that now is the time to talk about the flexibility of measures such as the mandatory use of masks.
Should children go back to schools with the increase in cases due to the omicron variant?
Experts, including Allen, have said that in-person learning must move forward, citing the eligibility of kindergarten through 12th grade students for vaccinations, and that teachers and staff have had plenty of time to get vaccinated and take their booster doses. .
"New data from New York State during the peak of the omicron surge shows that child hospitalization rates are on the order of 1 in 100,000 if you are not vaccinated. If you are vaccinated, a child's risk is on the order of 2 at 3 per million, "Allen said.
“We are approaching two years of interrupted school, children wearing face masks.
To think that there is no harm or loss in socialization, no impact, I think is wrong, ”Allen added.
"The risk to children is low and adults have had time to protect themselves with the vaccine."
For the nation as a whole, pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations recently reached a pandemic peak: 5,018 children, on Saturday, well beyond the peak of a wave driven by the delta variant, which was 2,544, on September 10, according to HHS.
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As some children return to class, others stay home
As the debate continues on how schools can better mitigate the spread of the omicron variant, some educators are taking matters into their own hands.
A group of teachers in Louisiana is planning a "sick leave" Wednesday to protest covid-19 protocols and severe staffing shortages, demanding the return of virtual learning in their district and that school officials extend school times. isolation for those infected for five to 10 days.
"We are asking our teachers to take off tomorrow and show solidarity by showing that we care about our students, and we are not going to allow them to put themselves in harm's way," said Valencea Johnson, president of the Louisiana Educators Association branch in the district of East Baton Rouge.
"Whole departments are out, buses and classrooms are being combined, auxiliary staff, teachers, office staff and other school employees are covering classes to keep the school afloat," he said.
"We cannot keep doing this. Our staff is exhausted and our students are not getting the education they need and deserve."
CNN reached out to the district superintendent for a response.
Several of the nation's largest school districts are returning to face-to-face learning, while others are switching to remote mode.
The Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta districts moved forward with the return to classrooms this week.
Chicago public school students will arrive to class Wednesday after a battle between the school system and the teachers union canceled classes for days.
Other districts, such as Cincinnati, Santa Fe and Las Vegas, where the Clark County school district is the fourth largest in the country, are temporarily returning to remote learning to deal with teacher absences.
Students return to Olive Vista High School on Tuesday in Sylmar, California. (Credit: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
"Use the highest quality mask you can tolerate"
Americans concerned about the best way to protect themselves and their loved ones should "wear the highest quality mask that you can tolerate and that is available to you," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Allergy Institute. and Infectious Diseases, to CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.
"If you can tolerate an N95, go for it. If you want to get a KN95, that's fine. And what the CDC has said, and is misunderstood, is that wearing any mask is better than not wearing it at all," Fauci said.
"But there is a gradation of ability to prevent you from getting infected and passing it on to someone else. Therefore, we should wear the best possible masks we can get. That is a fact."
CDC will update its mask website this week to better reflect the options available to people and the different levels of protection they provide, a CDC official told CNN on Tuesday.
Many experts say that cloth face masks do not provide enough protection, but the current CDC guide, last updated in October, still recommends three-layer cloth face covers.
In Chicago, the Department of Public Health announced the distribution of 1.9 million KN95 masks this week.
More than 100 community organizations, including churches and libraries, are helping distribute the masks, an improvement on many of the cloth masks used, said Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
"We know a lot of people, frankly, even a 50 cent or $ 1 mask is just an added cost at a difficult time," Arwady said.
- CNN's John Bonifield, Katherine Dillinger, Ben Tinker, Amy Simonson, Jenn Selva, Elizabeth Stuart, David Shortell and Paul P. Murphy contributed to this report.
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