BANGOR, Maine — Northern Light Health doctors are urging schools to follow the CDC recommendations for universal masking inside school buildings, regardless of vaccination status.
With many school districts allowing masks to be optional, parents are wondering what degree of protection kids will have if only a fraction of the class or staff are masked.
On Monday, Northern Light Health's COVID-19 senior physician executive Dr. James Jarvis answered this question during a press briefing: If my kid is the only one in their class wearing a mask, how effective is that mask?
"That's an excellent question and one I've seen making the rounds on social media," said Dr. Jarvis. "We can't really quantify that. That would be a very difficult study to do and provide."
The point of a mask is to block droplets that may contain the virus from spreading, Jarvis said. He said it offers "two-way protection," both for the person wearing one, and for those around them: that people wearing masks will contain droplets from spreading, and also not breathe in any droplets in the air.
"It just protects that from being spread directly in front of you. It also protects you from breathing them in if somebody else were to cough, sneeze, or talk loudly in front of you and spread that, so we know it is a two-way protection," Jarvis said.
Jarvis said that evidence proves the point for schools to follow universal masking.
"That protects everyone in the room to a level that wouldn't be done if even just one person was not masked," he said.
Jarvis also addressed parents' concerns about kids' social development while wearing masks, saying:
"What masking can help do is spread is prevent the spread from person to person, and therefore we will be able to continue to have in-person class during the entire school year and that's important," said Jarvis. "If we want to talk about disruptions of socialization, it is having your child go to school, and then have the school shut down and then the child going back and having that continue throughout the school year. It is much better for us to start off with a clean slate, doing all the preventative things we can do that's possible to keep our children safe and keep them in school for the entire school year."
The U.S. CDC recommends that anyone older than age two wear a mask inside school buildings, regardless of vaccination status. The World Health Organization also recommends kids wear masks, but that agency recommends kids age five and older.
Certain masks can provide better protection against COVID-19. The CDC recommends that a mask:
- Have two or more layers of washable, breathable fabric
- Completely cover your nose and mouth
- Fit snugly against the sides of your face and don’t have gaps
- Have a nose wire to prevent air from leaking out of the top of the mask