Our @CDCDirector proposes the US should diverge from the rest of the world & @WHO guidelines & have children wear masks outdoors while playing contact sports like soccer.
Available scientific evidence indicates this will not help control the pandemic, but will be harmful. See 🧵
1. Study of >91,000 *youth soccer* players over last summer and only ONE transmission event suspected, lead author says not known if transmission was indoors or outdoors or actually from home. medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
2. Univ of Wis study looking at >30,000 high school athletes w/2390 COVID cases; 5 from school, 1 from sports. Sport mask use *not correlated* w/incidence (of course as only 1 case of covid spread during sports!). medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
4. In our Wood CO WI study of K-12 schools with minimal transmission in high community prevalence over 13 weeks, recess was held outdoors without masks and no transmission events traced to recess. medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
5. Of all adult rugby players found to have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the time of their matches, not a single one transmitted to another player in spite of this being a high contact sport. bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/…
6. Two studies here showing the effect of masking according to exercise intensity: VO2 max decreases, CO2 increases, shortness of breath increases bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/…
7. "Being consistently inactive was a stronger risk factor for severe COVID-19 outcomes than any of the underlying medical conditions and risk factors identified by CDC except for age and a history of organ transplant"(masking kids discourages exercise)
8. The WHO advises against mask usage for children and adults alike during intense exercise. who.int/publications/i…
9. Even California has not had kids mask outdoors during sports competition. If our children are asked to mask outdoors during exercise, they will be pulled from competition. I am not a "right wing lunatic". I am a scientist and human who cares about the well-being of children.
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This morning, I testified as an expert physician epidemiologist on COVID in schools for a House of Representatives Round Table. It was a fascinating and productive experience. To me, the most important messages were as follows:
1. It is counter-productive to blame school districts/teachers for prolonged school closures when the message we are getting from the CDC is that schools are not safe at X amount of community spread/X amount of distance between students/until strict ventilation standards are met
We scientists know none of the above are based in K-12 school reopening science. We need a unified message from our CDC that is evidence-based which facilitates opening asap with simple, straight-forward, achievable mitigation strategies.