Are you seeing a list of draconian-seeming CDC “guidelines” for opening schools circulating? Are people commenting that the CDC is out of touch, that it’s never going to work, that they’d rather homeschool than send their kids to school like that? /1
Guess what: as far as we can tell, it was created by antivaccine advocates precisely to undermine confidence in the CDC. The CDC put out science-based guidance to help schools make informed decisions about the fall, and antivaxers saw an opportunity for confusion and distrust. /2
The antivax version is distortion of the real guidelines, which are a collection of suggestions for schools to consider, depending on what the actual risk of exposure is, and how feasible each measure is for individual age groups or communities./3
The earliest version we’ve seen is even formatted on a blue background very similar to the color CDC does actually use on its website, making it look like a real CDC summary. Note the typo in the word “guidlines” at the top./4
Example of the distortion: masks and young kids. The CDC says masks are one thing to mitigate risk of transmission, but they’re hard for young kids and should never be used on children under 2. Antivax version says masks required for all children over two. /6
Some news organizations are picking up the antivaccine version without fact checking. /7
Many parents will be reassured if as many exposure risks are mitigated as feasible. Plexiglass dividers at group tables allowing kids to see and talk, but not sneeze on each other? frequent cleanings? Sounds great to many parents. /8
Other parents read the list and see the differences between a fully mitigated school environment and they school their kids left in March. The antivax slant makes it sound rigid and scary. Those parents are reacting with fear, anger, and incredulity. Just as antivaxers hoped./9
The CDC intended the document to be a way for communities to decide how to balance the risk of exposure against the benefits of an open educational environment. Each measure is explained and qualified with an assessment of how much risk it mitigates for districts to consider. /10
Please don’t fall for antivaccine fear-mongering. The CDC is doing its job: providing science-based recommendations for school districts to consider when reopening schools during a global respiratory virus pandemic. /11 end
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