The nation’s top health officials think day care providers should continue requiring children as young as two years old to wear masks at all times—except while eating and napping—and that will remain the case even after all teachers and staff are vaccinated.
“Even after child care providers and staff are vaccinated, there will be a need to continue prevention measures for the foreseeable future including wearing masks, physical distancing, and other important prevention strategies outlined in this guidance document,” noted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in guidance that was updated on Friday.
The new recommendations emphasize that vaccination will offer important protection for child care workers. “I strongly encourage America’s childcare workers to get vaccinated,” said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
But the comprehensive protection offered by the vaccines—which are all nearly 100 percent effective at reducing severe disease and death—will not mean that daycare providers can ease up on other mitigation efforts, according to the CDC.
The new guidance makes plenty of benign recommendations. Both kids and their teachers should stay home if they feel sick, or if they have had very close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Children should be taught to cover their mouths and noses when they sneeze, and wash their hands frequently. These are all common sense procedures that would improve the health and safety of any classroom, even if the pandemic was not a factor at all.
But other recommendations are impractical for teachers to implement, taxing on the kids, and absurdly cautious given just how miraculously effective the vaccines are.
The guidance stresses that masks should be worn at virtually all times, even by very young kids, in addition to social distancing. It also emphasizes frequent cleaning of high-touch surfaces, even though surface-to-surface transmission is thought to be a relatively rare method of spreading COVID-19.
In fact, the CDC would prefer if kids simply didn’t touch things at all—especially if they are difficult to clean. Day care providers are encouraged to keep each kid’s toys separate; the fewer people touching each item, the better.