It is a great time of year as schools across Arizona and the country start to return to predominantly in-person instruction when many had to endure close to a year and a half of online instruction.
On a personal note, I know my sister-in-law, brother, and two nephews can not wait for the new school year to begin.
However, as the 2021/2022 school year is about to commence, stakeholders in the Education community would be wise to recommend preventive measures to ensure that both unvaccinated and vaccinated children and staff are not exposed to any variants of the Coronavirus like the Delta one.
As many are aware, COVID 19 cases (especially the Delta one,) hospital stays, and deaths have increased in the last couple of weeks, primarily in states and local communities where there is a strong aversion, prompted in large part by campaigns of anti vaxer disinformation, to receiving a Coronavirus vaccine. There have also been COVID 19 increases in minority communities due to historical resistance and, up until recently, issues with access.
While Arizona is not as bad off as states like the Dakotas, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, and Florida, journalists at the Arizona Mirror have reported that cases in the Grand Canyon state have swelled up 48 percent in the last week and COVID-related hospital admittance has increased about 25 percent.
The county with the largest increases is Mohave, perhaps one of the most conservative counties in the state where only 38 percent of its residents have been fully vaccinated.
Of all the new COVID 19 cases in Arizona, the Mirror reports that 95 percent of them stem from individuals who have not been vaccinated.
This is especially alarming because school is about to start and all of Arizona’s children 12 and younger do not have a vaccine to take yet. Many of those 12 through 18 that can get vaccinated have not and recent action by the science-denying Republicans in the State Legislature and the cowardly Republican Governor to make it illegal to require children to be vaccinated or wear masks in school is potentially putting a lot of people’s health and perhaps their lives at risk.
Will Humble, the former Director of the Arizona Department of Health Services and current Executive Director of the Arizona Public Health Association wrote of the Governors and Republicans anti-science actions in the Legislature:
“have tied the hands of virtually the entire state to the point where nobody is allowed to do virtually anything to slow the spread of COVID-19.”
Furthermore, he wrote on his blog:
“K-12 schools are prohibited from requiring masks on campus. Universities and community colleges cannot require masks nor can they have a student code of conduct that has different expectations for vaccinated and unvaccinated students. Cities and counties cannot have mask requirements in their jurisdictions. Vaccination requirements and requirements for vaccination records are prohibited. It’s like they have us in reverse lockdown.”
Readers should be reminded that the Governor’s office, in its interpretation of the new anti-science, anti-vaccine, and anti-mask law, is currently in a dispute with the Peoria and Catalina Foothills District over their quarantine policies for non-COVID vaccinated students (the new law says nothing about quarantines.)
So in the Governor’s worldview, anti vaccinated children should be allowed to roam around schools, possibly infecting their vaccinated classmates and teachers.
I hope the Governor and his staff are insured.
Superintendent Kathy Hoffman suggests schools recommend following AAP school reopening guidelines.
With the new school year close to commencing, both the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that all unvaccinated children and staff wear masks in schools when the 2021/2022 year begins.
The AAP and CDC did differ with regards to vaccinated children and staff. The AAP recommended they be masked as well. The CDC said they did not have to be.
Looking to ensure that all children and staff are as safe as possible when the school year starts, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman issued a public statement urging all public schools to suggest to all stakeholders (students, parents, and staff) to follow the AAP, CDC, and Arizona Department of Health Services guidelines.

She also recommended that all eligible children older than 12 receive their vaccinations.
Please read Superintendent Hoffman’s statement below:
“Arizona’s kids have been through enough, carrying some of the most significant burdens of this pandemic. We owe it to our students to make this school year as normal as possible by following the advice of medical professionals and public health experts.
For 16+ months, we’ve relied on proven mitigation strategies like masking, quarantining, and testing to combat COVID-19. Unfortunately, state leaders like Governor Doug Ducey have chosen to put our unvaccinated population, including most students, at risk for a political position that has nothing to do with science, health, or education.
Following guidance from the CDC and the Arizona Department of Health Services, the Arizona Department of Education urges all eligible individuals to get fully vaccinated as the school year starts. All public schools are encouraged to follow recommendations from public health officials and medical experts like the American Academy of Pediatrics to ensure safe, in-person learning all year long.
https://amp.cnn.com/…/us/aap-open-schools-covid/index.html”
While the Superintendent, per law enacted by science-denying Republican legislators and a political coward and ambitious Governor, could not require districts and schools to do this, it would be wise for these educational institutions to recommend strategies that will ensure the safety of as many people as possible.
This should be a joyous time of year for the Arizona Educational Community with the return of in-person instruction as long as there are adequate safety precautions for all stakeholders.
School personnel should follow local and national health guidelines and recommend everyone get vaccinated and wear masks until the threat of the Coronavirus and its newest, more transmissible, and virulent variants subside.
It is better than doing nothing and allowing COVID cases to potentially increase the first two or three weeks of the 2021/22 school year like the Ducey-Republican measures will enable.
Get Vaccinated.
Wear a Mask.
Stay safe.
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Hello David! Please research the literature of air handling systems in public buildings especially school building being, usually, inadequate. Those HVAC systems with out the proper amount of fresh air being added in and filters, etc. are a threat to all who go to the school building. Most AZ schools are not build to be able to open windows. All HVAC systems should be tested in each room by professionals before the school is certified to start the fall semester – that is my opinion.
Secondly all should review the AAP weekly report on Children and COVID-19: State-Level Data Report at https://downloads.aap.org/AAP/PDF/AAP%20and%20CHA%20-%20Children%20and%20COVID-19%20State%20Data%20Report%207.15%20FINAL.pdf and you all will see that AZ is one of the worst states in the nation to be a child of school age. AZ has been one of the worst states for kids the whole time that the COVID epidemic has been with us. The Governor and the leaders in the state legislature along with the former Trump officials and Trump should be prosecuted.
Superintendent of Education Hoffman’s position of recommending vaccinations and masks is not in anyway inconsistent with the bills that the Arizona legislature passed and Governor Ducey’s executive orders. It seems there is no disagreement here, so what’s the problem? Must be fight, even when we agree?
Tell me, John. Would you feel your children or grandchildren were safe going to school if other children were not required to get vaccinated or wear masks? Why are you treating COVID as less a threat than measles, chickenpox, or polio? Why are you, your colleagues in the legislature, and the Governor humoring this Know-Nothing Science Denying Fringe when 95 percent of the new cases in the state are coming from the non vaccinated ranks and most of them have the more transmissible and virulent Delta Variant? I mean, they can not vote for you if they get the virus and God forbid, die. School districts and school personnel need more authority than asking people to get vaccinated or wear masks or they’ll simply ask again. It is time to face reality. Sleep well.
You are so disingenuous. “Germ Lawfare: Arizona legislature bans mask requirements in schools as Pima County hits 70% vax mark”, https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/germ-lawfare-arizona-legislature-bans-mask-requirements-in-schools-as-pima-county-hits-70-vax-mark/Content?oid=31013766
On June 30, the Arizona Legislature approved the budget for next fiscal year, which bans public schools throughout the state from requiring masks or COVID-19 testing. This ban comes a few weeks after Gov. Doug Ducey signed an executive order banning state colleges and universities from doing the same. The ban [oddly] does not affect private schools, and has already taken effect.
Almost immediately after the budget was approved, some doctors and public health professionals weighed in on the subject, arguing the ban makes “no scientific or public health sense.”
On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics called for in-person learning to fully resume and said universal masking should be part of a “layered approach to make school safe for all students, teachers and staff.” “Going further than CDC, pediatricians group recommends masks in schools even for the vaccinated”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/19/aap-mask-schools-vaccination/
The nation’s leading association of pediatricians released new, highly anticipated covid-19 guidance for schools reopening this fall, recommending that everyone over the age of 2 wear masks, even if they are vaccinated against the virus — a more cautious approach than recent federal CDC directives.
“We need to prioritize getting children back into schools alongside their friends and their teachers — and we all play a role in making sure it happens safely,” Sonja O’Leary, chair of the AAP Council on School Health, said in a statement. “Combining layers of protection that include vaccinations, masking and clean hands hygiene will make in-person learning safe and possible for everyone.”
[The CDC says] that unvaccinated students and staff should still wear masks and that school districts should look to local virus trends to determine whether to ease or strengthen their measures.
Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said he trusts the AAP and the group’s recommendations are reasonable.
“They will not be popular amongst parents and kids who are sick of masks, but you know what? The virus doesn’t care that we’re sick of masks,” Collins said Monday in an interview with MSNBC.
As of Monday, just 36 percent of Americans ages 12 to 17 had received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to data analyzed by The Washington Post.
The country’s top infectious-disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, said the unevenness of inoculation is one reason universal masking could be necessary.
Leana Wen, an emergency physician and professor at George Washington University, has been among the public health experts to criticize the CDC’s recent guideline shifts. On Monday, she said the federal agency should follow the AAP’s lead.
“CDC needs to change their guidance too,” Wen said on Twitter. “If there is no proof of vaccination, and vaccinated & unvaccinated people are mixing, indoor masking need to be required.”
[But] at least eight states, including Texas and Arizona, have already banned mask mandates in schools.
As for universities and colleges, “Federal judge upholds coronavirus vaccine mandate for Indiana University students”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/07/19/iu-vaccine-lawsuit-mandate-judge/
A federal judge upheld Indiana University’s requirement for vaccination against the coronavirus in a ruling made public Monday, rejecting arguments from students who contended the mandate was unconstitutional.
The ruling could be influential as colleges and universities across the country are preparing to reopen in the fall and deciding how to protect campuses from the ongoing public health threat of the lethal virus. Hundreds of schools have adopted vaccine requirements.
So it appears that our anti-science, anti-vaxxer Trump death cult Republican governor and legislature are on the wrong side of best practices science, and on the wrong side of the law to appease their crazy base. Every child (and teacher) that dies from COVID is on their heads.