By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
A parent from Perrysburg asked the Board of Health to reconsider its guidance that students attending school be required to wear masks.
Andy Bucher, the father of five, said he was surprised when Perrysburg schools announced they would require all students, even those as young as 5, to wear facial coverings. That poses a particular problem for his son who has language delays. Even the private tutor for his son said that this was bad for him.
This decision, Bucher said, was not made by the Board of Education, but by Superintendent Thomas Hosler, following the Health Department’s guidelines.
Bucher asked the Board of Health to review those guidelines.
He questioned why some countries, and some other states can return to normal while those in Ohio cannot.
He said based on data from the state that the difference in transmission between schools that require masks and those where it’s optional is minimal.
He questioned the effectiveness of masks, especially the type of masks most people wear.
Also, children are not considered significant risk to spread the disease, he said.
“I would just implore … this agency to take a look at these measures,” he said.
Board Member Richard Strow said he had significant concerns on both sides of the issue. One was the problem of children being bullied for wearing a mask.
Bucher said what he’s heard is students who are not vaccinated being bullied, describing it as “horrific.”
Strow said he was dismayed to hear that.
Strow noted that Bowling Green had to cancel some bus runs this week because of a shortage of drivers in part because drivers were frustrated that students were refusing to wear masks while riding to school.
If the concern, Bucher said, is asymptomatic transmission, schools could use temperature checks.
Board Member Bob Midden said that temperature checks have proven unreliable in determining whether someone is infectious.
When Bucher said he had 14 studies showing that facial covering was not effective, Midden offered to review the peer-reviewed research on the matter.
Health Commissioner Ben Robison thanked Bucher for the “collegial manner” in which he addressed the board. He is concerned about the fracturing within the community over the pandemic.
Robison said that the county’s masking guidance is in line with CDC regulations.
[RELATED STORY: Health Department: Data support importance of masks in schools & need for vaccination]
Wearing masks, he said, is the best way to get students back in school and keep them there.
With precautions in place last school year, he said, the spread was limited. Now with some schools loosening their rules on masking, there’s more spread just two months into the school year.
Masking, he said, does work.
Dr. Tom Milbrodt said before Labor Day he volunteered at Penta to help with contact tracing because they had a number of COVID cases. After that the school started requiring the use of masks and it now has one of the fewest number of infections.
In his conversations with administrators from schools that do not require it, he said, he’s told they are willing to balance more infections and the need for more students to quarantine.
Robison said that if students are masked and maintain distance in school that forestalls the need for them to quarantine after minor exposure.
Some schools, he said, implemented masking because they were having too many students out of school to quarantine.
For students who do have significant exposure out-of-school quarantine lasts seven days, so they miss five days of school.
Strow said that the department should be working with schools to make sure those students who have to quarantine don’t fall behind in their school work.
“The woefully poor test scores” just reported by Bowling Green showed the toll of a year of virtual instruction. Schools need “to move heaven and earth to make sure these students are not left behind,” he said.
Robison said that some local health boards are also changing rules for quarantining, which would allow students to quarantine in school. He said he wanted to let the board know about this because this may become a topic for discussion.
Robison said that the benefits of vaccination are evident. While there are breakthrough cases when someone who has been vaccinated is infected, the chance of an unvaccinated person getting COVID-19 are 4.5 times greater.
The incidence rate for those who are unvaccinated is now under 100 per 100,000 as opposed to well over 300 per 100,000 for those who are unvaccinated.
“The numbers are pretty telling,” he said.
Robison said that the county will remain at high transmission rate for a while.
So far, he said, other variants have not proven as contagious as the delta variant that contributed to the spike in September.
The increase in cases then was steep, he said, but the decline more gradual.
Indications are, Robison said, that the holidays will have to be “quieter.”
His said with the current trajectory indicates “maybe being out of this by spring.”
He described himself as “cautiously optimistic.”
