When the CDC quietly relaxed their guidelines for students wearing face masks in schools, plenty of parents were greatly relieved. The decision seemed long overdue, even if there are still a few counties where infection rates remain stubbornly high. Schools have long been understood to not be “superspreader” locations for the most part at this point. But not all school districts were on board with the new approach. In Washington, D.C., the District of Columbia Public School system issued a statement saying that face masks would still be mandatory for all students, staff, and visitors when entering a school. But as a slight nod to those who might be opposed, the DCPS said that you can now remove the masks when going outside. (National Review)

Washington, D.C., public schools will continue to impose an indoor mask mandate for all students, staff, and visitors in defiance of updated CDC guidance relaxing masking recommendation for regions with low virus transmission, such as D.C.

“Students, staff and visitors will no longer be required to wear a mask when outdoors at our schools, effective immediately. Masks will continue to be required for all students, staff, and visitors while indoors,” a March 1 notice from DCPS reads.

The latest CDC advisory says that most U.S. counties do not qualify as “at-risk” areas for Covid-19 concentration and therefore can drop their mask requirements.

The first response to this announcement from most sane people was probably along the lines of, ‘wait a minute. You maniacs were making the children wear masks outside?’

As noted in the linked report, the CDC is now using a map that breaks down all counties in the United States into three categories. They define areas of “low, medium, and high” virus transmission. Only those categorized as “high” are still encouraged to wear masks indoors. Almost all of the District of Columbia and the parts of northern Maryland fall into the “low” category.

With so many other districts, including many in blue states, throwing in the towel on this issue, what’s up with D.C.? We’re finally seeing a growing consensus in the scientific community that in most cases, the commonly used cloth masks do little or nothing to impact transmission rates. (An idea that would get you banned on Twitter and Facebook if you so much as mentioned it until recently.)

Perhaps one factor is the reality that the District of Columbia is a deeper shade of blue than even most of New York City or San Francisco. They’ve probably indoctrinated all of the teachers (and even a fair number of parents) into such a perpetual state of COVID hysteria that it can’t be switched off on short notice. And they likely have no fear of being replaced through some sort of popular uprising among parents. Honestly, I’m shocked that they even allowed the schools to reopen at all.

It would seem that in D.C. it was never about following the science, and now it’s not even about following the politics. They’re just following the mantra, and they’ve been doing it for so long that they’re incapable of stopping. That’s a shame since the ones who will be paying the ultimate price for this are the children.