Amid a growing clamor to lift school mask mandates, the head of the nation’s largest teachers union said Tuesday that a rollback should hinge on student vaccination rates.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” American Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten was asked if she supported governors who have moved to end the requirements this week.
“At what point do we just say, ‘Okay, it’s time to get rid of the masks’?” asked host Willie Geist after showing Weingarten a copy of Tuesday’s New York Post front page on the matter. “Isn’t there enough science available already?”
While the governors of Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Delaware have announced an end to school mask mandates, Weingarten remained circumspect.
“The real question becomes, how can we make sure people can plan for it?” she asked. “And what are the measures so everybody knows — so it doesn’t feel like it’s based upon politics, it feels like it’s based upon making sure there is no transmission in school?”
But citing a “mounting” mental health crisis among kids, panelist Dr. Lucy McBride called for more urgency in discarding mask requirements.
“We cannot wait longer to think about lifting restrictions that are causing more harm than doing good,” McBride said.
As she spoke, a graphic showed climbing rates of suicide attempts, eating disorders, depression and anxiety among kids and teens.
“Here is the plain truth,” she said. “There is no convincing evidence in the real world that masking children in schools makes a significant difference in transmission in schools.”
When pressed as to the growing list of states moving ahead with a mandate scrap, Weingarten said she backed the specific approach taken by Massachusetts.
“I like what Massachusetts has done because what they’ve said is that by a school-by-school basis, they said if there’s 80 percent vaccination rates, then the schools can lift the mandates,” Weingarten said.
The influential labor figure also said she wanted more clarity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before fully backing a shift in current masking policies — and said many parents are still fearful of coronavirus transmission in schools.
Gov. Kathy Hochul indicated she will extend masking requirements this month and suggested that vaccine rates could impact any future shift in the policy.
