(EFE).- The increase in Covid-19 infections among children and the divergence of views on masks and vaccines have overshadowed the beginning of the school year in the United States.
One in four American students returns to school this week, in many cases for the first time in person since the beginning of the pandemic, and amid nervousness about the spread of the Delta variant.
Although there is still no evidence that this variant generates more serious cases among minors, infections among children and adolescents are soaring in several states with almost 94,000 new cases detected last week, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
President Joe Biden, was “very concerned” on Tuesday about the cases of children as young as “four, five, six years old – in hospitals, on ventilators, and some of them passing.”
“The reason children are becoming infected is because, in most cases, they live in low-vaccination-rate states and communities, and they’re getting it from unvaccinated adults,” the president said at a press conference.
That problem has fueled debate among school districts, states and the Biden administration over the possibility of imposing mandates on the use of masks in classrooms or requiring proof of vaccination from teachers.
About 90 percent of the country’s teachers are already vaccinated, according to the two largest teacher unions in the country, but establishing that requirement would send an important message to the rest of the school personnel and the parents of the students, according to the promoters of the measure.
Vaccines approved in the US are only licensed for use in those aged 12 and older, which worries many parents, especially in cities and states whose leaders are reluctant to enforce the mandatory use of masks in schools.
Biden tells reporters, “We’re checking that,” when asked if he will override governor’s orders preventing mask mandates in schools.
Seven states have prohibited the imposition of mask mandates in schools, a measure that has generated strong resistance in Florida and Texas, where infection numbers are high.
Two of Texas’ top school districts, Dallas and Austin, announced mask mandates for all students, staff and visitors on Tuesday in direct defiance of the order of the state’s Republican governor Greg Abbott.
In addition, San Antonio and Bexar County authorities filed a lawsuit Tuesday in order to be able to require the use of face masks in schools.
In Florida, the state with the highest rate of infections in the country, Governor Ron DeSantis threatened Monday to suspend the salaries of school board members and superintendents who defy the executive order outlawing mask mandates, as Alachua, Duval and Broward counties have already done.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki hinted Tuesday that the Biden government could resort to funds from the pandemic rescue plan that, she said, Florida has not yet distributed, to pay those who order the use of masks.
In general, infections and hospitalizations in the US are at their highest since February due to the spread of the Delta variant, with an increase of 33.7 percent in cases and 40 percent in hospital admissions in the last week, according to official data.
That means that there are twice as many infections as a year ago, when the school year began in many cases remotely, and 19 percent of the cases correspond to minors, according to data from the end of July from AAP.
Although that association estimates that only 1 percent of infected children end up admitted to hospital, last week there was an average of 216 children hospitalized each day, the same level as during the health crisis in January.
The AAP wrote a letter last week to the Food and Drug Administration asking it to authorize vaccination for children aged 5-11 as soon as possible.
However, it is not clear that this is the solution either, given that a third of Americans who are old enough to get the vaccine are still reluctant to do so, and half of parents of children between 13 and 17 years old are undecided if they will vaccinate their children. EFE
© 2021 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc.
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This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
Checking to see if he has the authority to do something? When did that start? Checking out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would be the best checking he could ever do.
SO much for being a BIG proponent of “STATE RIGHTS”.
The Tenth Amendment—“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”
We have all seen that the treasonous Democrat Party violates and ignores the U.S. Constitution, our laws and even the supreme court.
This Traitorous, socialist Democrat Party has become our country’s most destructive and deadliest ENEMY!
Vote ALL Democrats OUT of office from the president to the school board!
Joe is just desperate to divert attention from the real causes of the current COVID outbreaks, not coincidentally targeted at economically successful red states like Texas and FLorida. The only new variant that has arrived came in the bloodstreams of illegals that the Democrats have flooded into Amrerica, and bussed into targeted Conservative Texas and red Southern state communites to suppress the 2022 votes. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck,,,IT”S A DUCK. The same applies to this manipulated COVID conspiracy, born in a Chinese lab, and bred by a criminal American socialist conspiring political party disguised as American Democratic, bent on social conquest by any means necessary. Not even the Supreme Court rulings stand in their way, so why should they stop at violence itself to gain their desires? It’s not a coincidence you can’t find any ammunition at the gun shops,,,,another sign of their evil intentions and will to control THE PEOPLE by any and all means necessary.
I agree. HE REFUSES daily, to do a damn thing about the MILLION + illegals that have flooded JUST THIS YEAR< into our nation, bringing Covid and who knows what else, into our nation..
” infections among children and adolescents are soaring in several states with almost 94,000 new cases detected last week”. The propaganda of the communist left. Very few children have problems with covid. Thirdly, Joe is spreading covid with his open borders, illegal aliens (covid positive) being sent all over our Country.
AND since we’ve seen report after report, showing JUST HOW UNRELIABLE those so-called tests are, HOW THE HELL are we to believe, that 94k kids ACTUALLY have come down with covid?!
Masks do nothing. The viral particles are aerosols that are far too small for masks to have any impact. This has been proven in multiple studies funded by NIH, yet CDC and NIH ignore their own research.
Why does the government want to push a largely untested emergency use vaccine on the whole population for a virus that has a fatality rate lower than the flu? The effectiveness of these vaccines is becoming more and more questionable, and the long term effects are totally unknown.
pastanoodles: I believe that you have been listening and believing too much of the dishonorable, dishonest, unethical, traitorous Democrat party’s propaganda.
“a virus that has a fatality rate lower than the flu?” …. Huh??
COVID-19 total deaths = 4,331,634 – Flu total deaths = 24,000 – 62,000
“viral particles are aerosols that are far too small for masks to have any impact.”
Masks only work to reduce the amount of discharged infected droplets expelled when someone sneezes or coughs.
Masks only help in the spread of infected material.
Kinda like people putting their hand over their mouth when they sneeze or cough.
Saying the particles are too small is right, BUT. the process of “filtering” out particles is not merely like a simple sieve. There are other ways to trap particles much smaller than the openings in a mask. This requires construction of the mask/filter based upon the purpose, which can include: adhesion, bonding, entrapment, reaction, and other mechanisms. Yeah, I worked with masks and exposure protection for some time. The simple explanation is looking up filtration mechanisms or HEPA.
Money. Power.. Control..
Take your pick.
Rand Paul gave us good advice when he stated, just refuse to obey the mandates, they can’t arrest all of us.
WITH How much the left controls, from all the fbi and other federal LE agencies, and now the military too, i wouldn’t be so sure of that anymore…
Interesting that Biden is so incredibly worried about young kids getting sick and potentially dying from a virus that has a recovery rate of over 99% HOWEVER he is absolutely fine with pushing through legislation that will result in death for 100% of small human beings who are subject to it (namely abortion). The hypocrisy is stunning.
Notice that all the figures we read about is the infection rate. There is virtually NEVER a corresponding number of deaths quoted. WHY? Because, as has been proven over and over, the so called delta variant is no more deadly than the “normal” flu, ergo that would not drive the narrative satisfactorily to keep the sheeple under the thumb of the power mad democrats.
Until enough folks get the cojones to tell the democrats to go to hell and refuse to knuckle under, we will be faced with this nonsense in perpetuity.
The delta variant is more contagious by an estimated 20% in studies from India….. where people are shoulder to shoulder. I wonder what happened to the other variants as the Greek alphabet does not start with Delta.
This nightmare in the white house don’t care about the American people Or this southern border would NOT be open for the world to just walk in, bringing the virus, more and more drugs, human trafficking, criminals, putting this country at risk… The ONLY think this nightmare Biden wants is complete power over anyone and all states.. He wants everything his way … he wants to destroy our country and shove the American people into hell. God help our country and the American people as these vicious evil democRATS work hard to destroy our country…
“infections among children and adolescents are soaring in several states with almost 94,000 new cases detected last week, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).”
Is this by any chance the “Gain of Function” they have been so intently working on?
chairman mao biden and his progressive lap dogs give not one tinkers dam about our laws.
Never have, never will.
Or more likely it’s because Biden is flooding the country with millions of Wuhan Flu infected Illegals.
Maybe he should check first…. a rookie mistake.
Well, even AFTER checking, and finding out that the Eviction moratorium was illegal, HE STILL WENT AHEAD AND DID IT anyway.
So exactly, what good will “Checking” on this do?!
This a is a total embarrassment to the office of the President of the United States. That he would contemplate such a notion before ascertaining the Constitutionality of the matter is ludicrous. He’s trying this with the eviction moratorium which he better lose. He’s becoming like one of the Roman Emperors going mad with the power they thought they had.
The Prætorian Guard was there to remedy the situation countless times!
How many millions of cases were there in previous flu seasons that were never known about, because no was testing to see who had the flu without symptoms?
They are testing people just to see who contacted this flu to scare people with the large numbers game…. Its pathetic that we do not realize the game they are playing. Every virus spreads throughout a population. Its how herd immunity takes place.
It is what saved earth in the movie .. “War of the Worlds.” Remember the end? When the martians all died off from diseases they were having no immunity for? Herd immunity is formed for our protection..
PLUS< what ever happened to the YEARLY FLU?? We've not seen/heard a single news report, of ANY OF THE NORMALLY 50 or so thousand people, that die from THAT YEARLY…
So what ever happened to them? were they all counted as covid deaths?
Did the covid, cure the common flu?
It’s all about control ,control .control
The puppet masters of Joe the Mindless MUST be met with resistance, armed if need be, to stop the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship in America.
Nuff said.
Well, I think the kids themselves can make it very hard & politically suicidal for govt to enforce mask mandate on them.
Kids just need to start crying & screaming they can’t breathe & that they are very afraid of their teachers who are trying to kill them.
Might also help if kids start repeatedly crying “Jesus save me” or reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
Groups of distraught terrified kids crying, praying & begging God for help is guaranteed to intimidate & instill fear of violent outrage from parents & the public at large in even the most militant liberal teachers, school boards & especially politicians.
The teachers and school officials will not let the children pray to God the Father or to our Lord Jesus Christ for help. They will be punished if they do.
Plus the nuts at the freedom from religion group, will raise hell saying “the school is endorsing christanity!