Salt Lake County Council has unique opportunity to find common ground on masks, says Robert Gehrke

Three weeks could offer us invaluable data on how to protect Utah schoolchildren from coronavirus

Tears flowed, voices were raised and calls for reason and responsibility were made as passionate advocates argued Tuesday over whether or not Salt Lake County Council should demand that young students not. vaccinated wear masks to start the school year.

At the end of the marathon hearing, Salt Lake County Health Director Angela Dunn announced that she would be issuing an order requiring masks for children in Kindergarten to Grade 6.

Minutes later, County Council Chairman Steve DeBry said he would call an emergency session so that Republican members could – and he almost certainly appears to be – vote to quash the requirement.

If they do, it will mean that we start the year with an infection rate for children aged 5 to 11 that is four times what it was at this point last year, hospitalizations. in young people are increasing and a variant that we are still trying to understand, all only if our best tool for combating the virus in children – universal masking – is strictly voluntary.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Right now, the County Council has a unique opportunity to choose common ground and chart a reasonable course which, in the process, will provide us with facts and data to guide our decisions going forward.

That would require leaving the current county order in place and having children wear masks – but only for the first three weeks of the year. That’s not long, but it should give Salt Lake County enough time to compare the results to schools in Davis and Utah counties (which almost certainly won’t require masking) and determine if the experience works.

Are fewer children in Salt Lake County getting infected? Do fewer children end up in the hospital than in neighboring areas?

For some parents, even a day with a mask will be seen as an unacceptable intrusion into their rights and freedoms. These parents should be encouraged to keep their children at home and be offered distance learning options, at least for the first three weeks, while we see how it goes.

If, after this trial period, the evidence indicates that the masks are effective, common sense would dictate that the board would be wise to leave them in place, reassessing as you go.

If the naysayers are correct and we see no difference between Salt Lake and surrounding areas, then the council can vote to quash the mandate at that time.

And if the nightmare scenario unfolds and the Delta variant rips through schools across the state, then masks are the least of our problems and we’ll have to fundamentally re-evaluate our approach to education this year.

The value here is that we get real-world information specific to Utah schools allowing board members to make a more rational and informed decision. As an added bonus, that will bring us closer to three weeks to find out when these school-aged children might be eligible for vaccines.

And, oh hey, we might just stop some of the dire consequences kids from catching COVID in the process.

There is another alternative that I think is worth exploring. “Endgame” legislation passed by Republican lawmakers prohibits local school districts from requiring masks. But, as I read, nothing in the law prevents the county health department (with council approval) from issuing a narrower mask requirement for specific districts – assuming districts request have one.

That way, schools in Salt Lake City, for example, could require masks – something many parents, including Mayor Erin Mendenhall, would like to see – while the Canyons District could not.

And, again, we can monitor the data to see how the different districts are doing and whether the masks are working or not.

All of this to say that this seemingly intractable fight may not be so intractable after all. Yes, the battle lines are drawn between the never-masks and the partisans of the Mandates and the walls between them are indeed high.

But between these polarized camps there is room for reason and flexibility, not to mention the ability to collect data that will allow facts, not factions, to guide our decisions.

The opportunity is there, provided that the departmental advisers have the wisdom and the political courage to seize it.