Mayor Will Partially Lift Mask Mandate

Using the percents of kids doesn’t make sense right now because once the 6 month barrier of these vaccines we would be onto booster shots. I say we make it a personal choice to mask up or not until we have another variant that spreads quickly. Use the time when Covid is low to unmask and when it goes back up we will put the masks back on.

News alert: People haven't listened to Elicker or Bond for two years. Each of us makes our own decisions regarding the level of risk we are comfortable with. They should go fix something else that isn't broken.

Is there a higher incidence of Covid related deaths and hospitalizations in the New Have schools as opposed to the general population? If not, this is completely illogical and nothing more than a power grab. Teachers and students are robbed of a choice that EVERY OTHER district in the state has been given. Bond has turned out to be a awful public health professional and Elicker remains arrogant and condescending.

Many other public schools in the area are "unmasking" starting next week (and many places throughout the world already have). Children are generally extremely happy about this.

Masks could be interfering with communication, speech, and social-emotional development, so we shouldn't wait decades for more research on their effects before deciding that they should be used with more caution.

What if they are more hazardous to children than we think? We just do not know, which is why many countries haven't required them for young children.

And while masks are excellent tools during pandemics in general, there is zero evidence that pieces of fabric that are not worn 100% of the time (kids have to eat, etc.) are helping to reduce transmission in real-life school settings.

Given what other communities are doing, New Haven should consider if it wants to be the odd town out that is requiring young, developing children to wear face masks for years on end. Put the happiness and mental health of the city's children first. Students can be counseled on whether or not to keep wearing a mask if they are anxious, and they and their parents are mature enough to make their own choices. Teachers and staff within schools are not public health experts, and those who are concerned or anxious may also need better counseling and information. For several more months, high-quality masks should be provided free of charge to any children who feel like they need to keep wearing them. Schools should be flooded with additional mental health resources.

On the other hand, City Hall is kind of like a retail business that people pop into once or twice per year, not somewhere where children spend the majority of their waking hours, year after year, as they grow up. If the "owners" of City Hall want to keep requiring masks, just like a private gym or doctor's office might, I don't see any issue with that. Because it is a public facility, free masks need to be provided at the door.

Let kids and their parents make their own decisions to wear a mask or not. You should always be able to wear a mask, not forced.

Never understood wearing mask to a restaurant. Grateful to Connecticut leadership for advancing vaccinations.

What’s another week going to do wearing a mask . All this shows is that Elicker is a control freak. Monday Feb. 28th should be the last day anyone has to wear a mask . Enough is Enough !!!

I'm glad its time but...so much bluster...

DENNIS
A lot of people would never have worn masks (proven to be effective against the spread of respiratory infections) had they not been asked to do so.

NHPSFAMILY
No, children have a profoundly lower rate of death and hospitalization and that's exactly why we had to be cautious. Their going to school and coming home every day created a great risk of infecting more vulnerable people in their families. (in fact, the CDC believes that half of infections amongst children are asymptomatic and therefore even more dangerous for others)

ANONYMOUS
In my opinion, kids are very adaptable and resilient. And social-emotional development is not as critical as preventing the death rates we saw in 1918-19 with Spanish Flu (50M worldwide).

APRILVINE
How do you feel about seat belts? Traffic lights? All those little things that have been proven to save lives?

WESTROCKS,
Some of the first pandemic studies were done in China on outbreaks occurring at restaurants. The conclusions were that (besides your trust in your dining companions) table proximity and air flow were the most important factors. Restaurants here and elsewhere were asked to deal with that by staggering tables, asking guests to mask when not at their table and of course, outdoor dining.

ROBN-The guidance put forth by the CDC today definitively stated that New Haven is an area that should unmask students. Period. Two weeks ago, Elicker stated he was following CDC guidance. Instead he has chosen to go rogue in the face of many medical and scientific experts that know far more than him.
And you are incorrect about this not causing harm to children. No other group has been forced to mask 7 straight hours a day, for close to a year.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC8595128/
We all know cloth masks do nothing and N95s shouldn’t be worn by children. Furthermore, a walk through any school will reveal they aren’t being worn properly by everyone all the time, so what is the point here? New Haven kids need normalcy, and to be treated no different than their peers. Families should have a choice.
So now it is ok for 100 plus crowds of random people from all over the region to gather closely in night clubs unmasked, but 25 kids and a teacher in a controlled setting must keep masking. Make it make sense.

Mayor Muffles greatest fear is that the power associated with the pandemic is evaporating before his eyes. The clothes of masterful covid fear purveyor is found to be translucent revealing this silliness for what it is. And still, he hangs on. There is no rationale supporting another 10 days of face lockdowns and even less to segregate muni-buildings. He's had months of declining infections rates, hospitalizations and new reveals that masks are minimally effective. Still, Muffles hangs on. The CDC, the governor, other governors, mayors and health experts say to end this. Muffles refuses bolstered by his loyal LT of Fear Bond. These people said they were following the science and CDC guidelines which have been all over the place. Now, their guidance is clear. Follow it. Without delay.

Dennis - Your missive only relates to how much you personally have control over what you do. What you don't realize is that your actions affect others, and your freedoms can potentially, or have actually, killed others. Regardless of your political philosophies on personal freedom, you don't understand that humans, whether we like it or not, are collective animals. I don't like wearing a mask, and I feel sorry for kids having to wear masks, but if it cuts down infections and deaths in the populace as a whole it's a good thing. Selfishness results in casualties for the innocent. This is just the beginning. With massive human overpopulation nature will fight back with ever more destructive and debilitating diseases. If you and your family want to be here for the long haul you need to heed professional medical advice, and drop this holier than though individualism. It may be what the country was built on, but circumstances change.

@Dennis
Why doesn't Dennis simply stop wasting his time and our time writing about New Haven or Mayor Elicker. He has his right to say whatever he wants, but readers have grown weary of his relentless negativism.
Suffice it to say whatever the issue regarding the mayor or the City, he's against it!

People will send their children to school when they know that they are sick. Glad the school district is still requiring mask to be worn in the schools.

Sorry, but to me common sense dictates that we all either need to wear masks, or we don't need to wear masks. I'm keeping mine on till there is no longer a mandate, and probably a bit longer. I've completely lost faith in these two getting anything right.

@Thomas Alfred Paine
Why doesn't Dennis simply stop wasting his time and our time writing about New Haven or Mayor Elicker? If it's a waste of your time, why do you bother reading my comments AND then wasting more time commenting on them?; feel free to skip over them and revert to your bubble.

He has his right to say whatever he wants, but readers have grown weary of his relentless negativism. Sorry, just not seeing the New Haven Renaissance. Maybe I spend too much time looking at the City's financials. And thank you for acknowledging my first amendment rights.

Suffice it to say whatever the issue regarding the mayor or the City, he's against it!
You left out the do-nothing Board of Alders.

Peace!

Chernobyl - I've worn a mask from early on, and social distanced and continue to do so. And I do so for the reasons you state. But, I'm not doing it because of Elicker/Bond and I wouldn't count on them for medical advice. And I think he looks ridiculous and loses all credibility when he stands at a microphone (usually outside) without anyone near him, and continues to wear a mask; the science simply does not support it.

The virus rates are dropping, but we aren’t out of the woods yet. When we have warmer weather and can open windows for better circulation and are socializing more outside, we stand a better chance of removing our masks and not passing around the COVID virus and creating more variants. Children under 5 are NOT yet eligible for the vaccines. There are still incidents of the dangerous multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children who have had asymptomatic or mild COVID infections. The elderly, persons with co-morbidities, the immunocompromised, persons who didn’t get the recommended 3 doses, along with those who have waning immunity because they are more than 5 months since their last vaccines dose, are at higher risk of hospitalization or death from the COVID virus. I know of persons who were fully vaccinated and boosted with the vaccines and still struggled with COVID infections that were not mild, some were hospitalized. Some people are living with post COVID long haulers syndrome.
Luckily the dominant variants of omicron and BA.2 variant are generally milder for many of the fully vaccinated and the unvaccinated than the Delta and incidents of reinfection for those variants and their resistance to vaccines are rare or mild. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/02/23/health/covid-ba2-omicron-studies-explainer/index.html
But the more we continue to pass around the virus, the more chances the virus has to mutate and create more variants, and potentially more surges. We need to be ready to put the masks back on if the virus surges up in infection rates again, or if new variants arise that are more infectious or more dangerous. We need to be considerate of those who are more vulnerable or who live with people who are more vulnerable. We need to be considerate of each other. We need to get fully vaccinated and boosted if we are able to do so, to protect those who can’t get vaccinated, or to protect those who are are more at risk.

NHPS family, the first line of your 8:54 a.m. post is incorrect. The CDC guidance does not state that “New Haven is an area that should unmask students”. The guidance does not argue for or against mandates in such areas. It leaves this decision to communities and other non-federal actors. It states that schools and other settings might include additional levels of protection based on information and data about the setting.

Reasonable people disagree about how and when to end mask mandates. But it is wrong to misrepresent the position of other parties.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/community-levels.html?ACSTrackingID=USCDC_2145-DM76655&ACSTrackingLabel=02.25.2022 - COVID-19 Data Tracker Weekly Review&deliveryName=USCDC_2145-DM76655

I'm a teacher and I am quite happy the mask mandate will continue in schools. I won't tell you how many cases of Covid there were in my class that I found out about accidently because parents didn't bother to share the information with the school, how many kids showed up before receiving their test results when they were exposed and how many children that had Covid came back after the new five day timeline and were still complaining about not feeling well and sleeping most of the school day.

I also don't believe that schools were honestly reporting all of the cases because the numbers reported to the state did not match the number of cases in a school any given week.

And the children aren't complaining about the masks...it's mostly an adult problem. So many people are concerned about putting children's mental health first. I don't find it psychologically healthy when children were paraded in front of the Board of Ed in various districts to give speeches (that included vocabulary, data and phrases that made it quite clear they were being coached by their parents) about removing mask mandates.

One day there will be an objective review of what government and established health authorities did right and/ or wrong. Until then there is a plethora of information for those willing to go beyond the traditional mass media.
Have you wondered how Sweden actually did? Sweden never too the authoritarian route, but followed the advice of its chief epidemiologist.
Here's one report: https://www.freedomworks.org/content/end-sweden-did-it-right

(in fact, the CDC believes that half of infections amongst children are asymptomatic and therefore even more dangerous for others)
What evidence supports your statement? I don't know of a study either way, but intuitively I would think someone coughing and sneezing would be be infectious than someone who is not (not that all symptomatic people cough and sneeze). I would also suppose that someone infected but not sick would be less infectious. He would be less asymptomatic because his immune system is suppressing the infection, meaning he has a lower viral load, and is therefore less infectious than an ill person.

We each choose a side based on information available. IF you choose to absorb it.

The sudden 'unmasking' of the population is based on a few factors...the CDC reworking the data...the data becoming more transparent...Biden's incredibly low popularity numbers, coupled with his March 1st State of The Union address...the upcoming November election cycle where all available data suggests a shellacking that costs Dem's the House & Senate...like it or not, the populace has spoken. The mask mandates did basically nothing, and the vaccinations should've only gone to elderly and those with co-morbidity's. Don't take my word for it, I pay attention to liberal journalists Glenn Greenwald & Alex Berenson. Argue with them. They're publishing the the science direct from scientists, not political scientists.

"15 days to flatten the curve." - Fauci
"masks don't work" - Fauci
"mask up for 100 days" - Biden
"masks help" - Fauci
"I'll eliminate Covid" - Biden
"Covid needs to be solved at the State level" - Biden
"this will be a severe Winter of sickness and death" - Biden
"sentimental hogwash" - Mr.Potter