CDC calls for K-12 schools to reopen

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday called for grade schools and secondary schools across the country to reopen safely and as soon as possible for in-person instruction in a lengthy set of new guidelines.

The new recommendations come as the nation debates students back to schools for in-person learning, as virtual learning has had broadly negative impacts on students’ mental health and academic performance, as well as making life difficult for parents who have had to adjust to having their children at home and a whole new work life.

“It is critical for schools to open as safely and as soon as possible, and remain open, to achieve the benefits of in-person learning and key support services,” the CDC stated in the new guidelines. “All community members, students, families, teachers, and school staff should take actions to protect themselves and others where they live, work, learn, and play.”

In the guidelines, the CDC laid out “five key mitigation strategies” to help reopen K-12 schools safely. Those five key strategies are: everybody wearing masks and wearing them correctly; social distancing; washing hands; cleaning facilities and bolstering ventilation; and practicing contact tracing and quarantining.

While policies such as mask-wearing and social distancing have been recommended by the CDC before in previous guidelines, this time the CDC is more assertively calling on schools to practice them.

The CDC emphasized that such schools should be reopened before nonessential businesses and activities are and that they should be the last to shut down when state and local governments enact COVID-19 restrictions.

“I want to be clear, with this operational strategy, CDC is not mandating that schools reopen. These recommendations simply provide schools a long-needed roadmap for how to do so safely under different levels of disease in the community,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a Friday press briefing.

“We also know that some schools are already providing in-person instruction and we want them to be able to continue to do this, but we know that some are not following the recommended mitigation strategies we know to work,” Walensky added. “For these schools, we are not mandating that they close; rather, we are providing these recommendations and highlighting the science behind them to help schools create an environment that is safe for schools, students, teachers and staff.”

While the Biden administration has been calling for K-12 schools to reopen soon and safely, specifically most of them within his first 100 days, teachers unions across the country have been pushing back against reopening until more protections are put in place and testing and vaccinations for teachers become more available.

Last week, though, Walensky said during a White House press briefing that vaccinating is “not a prerequisite” for safely reopening schools.

“There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated,” she told reporters.

https://saraacarter.com/cdc-calls-for-k-12-schools-to-reopen/

‘We should be prepared it will remain with us’: EU health agency chief says Covid-19 might NEVER be eradicated

People weary of a pandemic that has dragged on longer than advertised may need to brace themselves for a troubling prospect, as the head of the EU's ECDC health agency has warned that Covid-19 will likely stick around forever.

"It seems very well adapted to humans, so we should be prepared that it will remain with us," Andrea Ammon, head of the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention, told France's AFP in an interview on Friday.

In fact, Ammon said it appears more likely that the virus will continue to circulate indefinitely than that it would disappear. "It wouldn't be the first virus that is with us forever, so it's not an unusual feature for a virus," she added.

Despite development of several vaccines to fight Covid-19, the virus could continue to proliferate, Ammon said. Although health officials are confident that the vaccines are effective in preventing people from contracting illnesses caused by Covid-19, It will take more time to evaluate how effective they may be in reducing the spread of the virus.

It's also not yet clear how effective the vaccines will be in blunting new strains of coronavirus. Ammon said Covid-19 may wind up being relatively stable, meaning that the same vaccines can be used against it year after year, or it could change significantly enough over time to necessitate adaptations of the inoculations, like those used for seasonal flu each year.

Even with the pace of new infections dropping off after spiking in December and January, Ammon said governments need to keep imposing Covid-19 restrictions. "We are really not out of the woods," she said. "Everybody's fed up with the measures, but when you're running a long-distance course . . ., (you) have to run the last kilometers."

https://www.rt.com/news/515448-eu-coronavirus-forever-vaccine/

ICE Plans Large Migrant Group Release into West Texas Despite CDC Rule

Law enforcement sources are reporting the suspension of scheduled ICE removal flights to Haiti. The move will force Border Patrol agents to reprocess more than 100 Haitian migrants, allowing them to claim asylum and qualify for immediate release in the meantime.

Nearly two hundred migrants recently entered the United States illegally near Del Rio, Texas, in two large groups. Most are still detained and await return to their home counties under the CDC pandemic rules.

Although the CDC Title 42 authority has yet to be revoked by the Biden Administration, it appears it is being ignored here.

Border Patrol recently received instructions to re-process and release the migrants into the local community. Unless ICE reverses course, many will be released to local shelters to wait for transportation away from the border.

The move may ease the cramping detention situation at local Border Patrol Stations, as sources report they are already feeling the strain of increased illegal activity on the border. Agents will now begin the process of creating asylum case files for each migrant. The administrative burden typically means a crunch in manpower for enforcement activities at the actual border.

Not everyone is critiquing the development. One Del Rio-based commercial transportation company says it is fully prepared to meet the needs of the nearly 200 migrants that will be released over the next few days. They increased their fleet capacity in recent years to absorb large migrant group releases.

“We’re ready to go,” one long-term employee told Breitbart Texas.

DHS/ICE has not responded to a request for information regarding the suspension of flights under the CDC Title 42 authority.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/02/12/exclusive-ice-plans-large-migrant-group-release-into-west-texas-despite-cdc-rule/