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“What’s causing all the confusion, the internal struggles, the disagreement – it’s really a lack of goal setting, ”said Joseph G. Allen, a Harvard University expert on sustaining health inside buildings, including schools. “Zero Covid in schools? Well, it might not be possible.
Wyoming
Where masks are rare
The end of year balls have been canceled. So have sporting events.
But Wyoming, a deeply conservative state, took a largely passive approach to schools this fall, despite one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. Almost all counties have an extremely high risk of infection.
The state has recommended masks, and in the absence of masks, the quarantine of unvaccinated students exposed to the virus. But local school boards are calling the shots. And a majority chose not to hide.
In Natrona County, where masks are optional, 693 students – about 5% – stayed home between September 11 and 24. And in Sweetwater County 1 School District, another non-masked district, 4% of students and 5% of employees have tested positive for the virus since the start of the school year, although the number of cases has increased. declined last week.
Although Sweetwater does not perform tests at school, the infection rate is relatively high compared to some heavily vaccinated areas with regular surveillance tests, which showed school positivity rates of less than 1% this fall. .
Some school boards in the state are trying to encourage vaccinations. Campbell County is offering $ 300 for staff members who get vaccinated before Dec. 1 and additional sick leave for vaccinated teachers who contract groundbreaking cases. But the incentives were divisive.
Still, Wyoming’s classrooms are full, just like last year.
Nicole Bolton, director of human resources at Sweetwater, said she did not have data on the number of students who had missed school because of the virus. But day to day, she noted, it didn’t feel like many students were missing.
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