The New York Times editorial board declared this week that it’s the “right time” to end all school mask mandates — a day ahead of President Joe Biden’s first ever State of the Union address.
What are the details?
The board on Monday said they believed it was the “right time” to end mask mandates inside schools following the announcement of New York City Mayor Eric Adams that all mask mandates would be lifted by March 7 so long as case counts remained low.
Adams also announced future plans to rescind the vaccine requirement for public spaces such as bars, gyms, movie theaters, restaurants, and more.
“[W]ith full vaccination rates in the city at 78 percent and the latest surge clearly passed, this is the right time to lift the requirement for masks in schools,” the editorial board said in its Monday essay. “It’s a lot to ask young children to wear masks for several hours a day, especially when so many adults seem to struggle with it.”
The board added that as case counts are remaining steadily low, “now is as good a time as any to test the waters.”
The board continued lauding New York City’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and said that the city — and its state — can now “be a model and set an example” for other regions considering lifting COVID-19-related mandates — except, of course, for vaccine-related requirements.
“Once the COVID-19 vaccines win full F.D.A. approval (as opposed to emergency authorization) for younger children, city and state officials should make the shots mandatory for all public school students, just as they already do for measles, mumps, rubella, and a host of other once-devastating diseases,” the essay continued. “The past two years have taught us that there is no foolproof metric for when to impose which safety measures, or when to lift them. Our technology advances, the virus evolves, and public willingness to change behavior shifts over time.”
The board concluded its essay, “This virus is not going away anytime soon, as so many experts have warned. But New York is no longer in the acute phase of this crisis. We have vaccines, the promise of new medications, hard-won expertise in treating COVID-19 and a strong baseline of immunity in the population. There will never be a perfect moment to step into the next chapter of this pandemic. But at some point, we have to try moving forward. There are smart ways to do that right now, and the mayor is wise to embrace them.”