On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released new Covid-19 guidelines for schools that recommend universal mask requirements for students over the age of two. AAP’s recommendation applies to all students “regardless of vaccination status,” in contrast with recent CDC guidance, which leaves room for vaccinated students to go unmasked. Surely, the AAP’s prescription makes sense in some locales, but their sweeping stance will push many of the districts that most need to hear measured and scientific recommendations to dismiss it in favor of a “common sense” approach to masking.
Last school year, “common sense” had far greater influence over school operations than science-based guidelines. Local attitudes toward masking, vaccine hesitancy, and the 2020 presidential election were stronger predictors of whether school districts offered in-person learning over the course of the 2020-2021 school year than local COVID transmission rates. Districts in red states, often with low public support for masking and high vaccine hesitancy, brought students back to school well before meeting CDC thresholds for in-person learning. In that regard, “common sense” led to more in-person schooling without substantially increased COVID transmission — as analyses have since confirmed — let alone the major outbreaks many feared.
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