A review of Kaiser Health News / PolitiFact data says the claim that it is time to return to normalcy is false.

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The claim that it is time to abandon precautions goes against current public health strategies.

(Rick Egan | Tribune Archive Photo) Utah Jazz fans wear masks to the Living Arena for NBA action between the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks on January 29, 2021. A review of Kaiser Health News data concludes: no, it’s not time to get back to normal.

| February 23, 2021 at 9:36 p.m.

| Update: 21:48

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News in collaboration with PolitiFact.
A popular Facebook post and blog posted by conservative radio host Buck Sexton claims that scientific research indicates that life should return to normal despite the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is what science tells anyone who is sincere about it: open schools, stop wearing masks outside and everyone at low risk should start living normally. Not next fall or next year, now, ”says the blog post posted on Facebook on February 8th.

The post was marked as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat fake news and misinformation on its news channel. (Read more about PolitiFact’s association with Facebook.)

KHN-PolitiFact sent a message to Sexton via its Facebook page asking if it could provide evidence to support the statement, but got no response.

Therefore, we reviewed the scientific evidence and spoke with public health experts about Sexton’s publication. In general, they disagreed, pointing out the ways in which it would run counter to current public health strategies.

Let’s take it point by point.

‘Open schools’

In March, when government and public health leaders realized that the coronavirus was spreading throughout the United States, many public institutions, including schools, were ordered to close to prevent further spread. A large number of students finished the spring semester of 2020 remotely. Some jurisdictions chose to reopen schools in the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021, while others have remained remote.

Throughout the pandemic, researchers have studied whether face-to-face learning in schools contributes significantly to the spread of COVID-19. The findings have shown that if K-12 schools comply with mitigation measures (masking, physical distancing, and frequent hand washing), there is a relatively low risk of transmission.

And getting the kids back to the classroom is a priority for the Biden administration.
At a Feb. 3 White House press conference, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the data suggests that “schools can reopen safely.” On February 12, the CDC issued guidelines on how schools should approach reopening. Standard risk mitigation measures are recommended, as well as universal masking, contact tracking, creating cohorts or student learning pods, testing, and controlling community transmission of the virus.
Susan Hassig, an associate professor of epidemiology at Tulane University, said science demonstrates that schools can open safely if “mitigation measures are implemented and maintained in the school space.”

Here are some of the latest research that follows these positions:

  • Only seven cases of COVID-19 of 191 were located at the school in 17 rural K-12 schools in Wisconsin that had high compliance with mask use and were monitored during the fall 2020 semester.
  • Mississippi researchers found that most coronavirus in children and adolescents was associated with out-of-home meetings and the lack of constant use of masks in schools, but was not only associated with attending school or childcare.
  • Thirty-two cases were associated with school attendance of 100,000 students and staff members in 11 North Carolina schools, where students had to wear masks, practice physical distancing, and wash their hands frequently. .

Of course, there are some limitations in these studies, which are often based on contact tracking, a process that cannot always identify the origin of cases. Some of the studies also rely on personalized information about people’s use of masks, which could be inaccurate.

In addition, Hassig noted that not all school districts have resources, such as physical space, staff, or high-quality masks, to open safely.

Sexton’s claim that schools can reopen leaves out key information: that safe reopening depends largely on the use of mitigation measures that have been shown to reduce the spread of the virus.

“Stop wearing masks outside”

Because the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is relatively new, research on the use of outdoor masks is limited. But so far science has shown that masks prevent the transmission of viruses.

The CDC study published Feb. 10 reported that a medical procedure mask (commonly known as a surgical mask) blocked 56.1% of simulated cough particles. A cloth mask blocked 51.4% of the cough particles. And the effectiveness increased to 85.4% if a cloth mask was worn over a surgical mask.
Another experiment in the study showed that a person with a mask emits fewer aerosol particles that can be transmitted to a person without a mask. And if both are masked, aerosol exposure to both is reduced by more than 95%. A multitude of reports also show more generally that the use of masks is effective in reducing the risk of the spread or capture of other respiratory diseases.

Sexton’s message, however, advised people to stop wearing masks outside. Of course, public health experts agree that the risk of coronavirus transmission is lower outside than inside. But experts also said that doesn’t mean people should stop wearing masks.

“The wind can help you out a little bit, but you still run the risk of this virus being inhaled by the people around you,” said Dr. Rachel Vreeman, director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health. Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine. .
Being out “is not a guarantee of safety,” reiterated Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center. “Especially when those people without masks are together.”
The CDC addressed the question of whether masks are needed outside of agency guidelines: “Masks may not be needed when you are outside, outside of other people, or with other people living in your home. However, some areas may have mask warrants while in public, so check your local area rules. “

In general, the predominant scientific opinion is that while it may be okay to get out of a mask if you are physically away from others, the use of masks is still recommended if you are next to others.

“Everyone at low risk should start living normally”

All the public health experts we consulted agreed that this part of the claim is absolutely false. Fly in the face of what scientists recommend to go through the pandemic.

While it is not clear what exactly the message means for “low-risk” people, we assume that it refers to younger people or those without health conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19. And that “living a normal life” refers to stopping wearing masks, physically distancing yourself, or washing your hands more often.

News reports and scientific evidence show that bars, parties, and other large gatherings can quickly become more popular events. In addition, even young people and those without pre-existing health conditions have become seriously ill with COVID-19 or have died from it.

Even if a low-risk person does not get seriously ill, it could still infect other people in higher-risk groups.

The sentiment of this message is similar to the calls made at the beginning of the pandemic to leave life normalized in an attempt to gain the herd’s immunity. But on the road to achieving that goal, many would die, said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“Anyone returning to normalcy right now, especially in the presence of more transmissible and deadly variants, would be a recipe for other public health disasters in addition to what we have already experienced,” he added.

Nearly half a million Americans have died from COVID-19.

The drive to “get back to normal” is precisely what allows new variants to form and multiply, Vreeman said. “If we can get people vaccinated and keep wearing masks in the meantime, we’ll just have a chance to get back to normal.”

In fact, due to new variants circulating in the U.S., Walensky and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have urged Americans not to relax their efforts to control the spread of the virus.

A post on the blog of conservative talk host Buck Sexton states that scientific evidence shows that right now we should “open schools, stop wearing masks outside and that everyone at low risk should start to live normally ”.

Scientific research shows that in order for schools to reopen safely, risk reduction measures need to be put in place, such as the need for masks, rigorous hand washing and limiting the number of students in classrooms. These changes, however, would not represent a return to normalcy, but a new normalcy for students and teachers.

The rest of Sexton’s statement goes further than current science. Research indicates that you are safer outdoors than indoors, but public health experts still recommend wearing masks in public, even outdoors. Science does not support the idea that it is the right time for some people to resume life normally. This would allow the virus to continue to spread and have a high human cost on hospitalizations and deaths, experts said.

Sexton’s post is inaccurate. We value it as false.

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