Anchorage School Superintendent Deena Bishop advised parents Thursday that when students return on Jan. 3, 2022, face mask wearing will be optional. Masks have been mandatory since the beginning of school this year.
Bishop, who in November announced her resignation effective June 30, 2022, said that with lower case counts of Covid, it was time to transition to normalcy.
But whether the School Board will go along is another story. The board has received at least 50 emails from parents and pediatricians objecting to the lifting of the mask mandate on students, and only about five emails from those supporting it. At Monday’s meeting, the radical leftist board may take it upon itself to override the superintendent.
Among those writing to demand the continued masking of children is the Alaska Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who wrote a letter Friday to the board, leaning on board members to continue the mask use in schools, as “it is imperative that we protect our children by requiring masks in the setting where they spend the majority of their day.”
The pro-mask pediatricians may be persuasive with the board, as they were with the Anchorage Assembly when they waded into politics regarding masks in October.
Those parents who have an opinion on lifting of the mask mandate on children may wish to weigh in before the Monday board meeting. Letters may be sent to the board at [email protected] and to Superintendent Bishop at [email protected].
The board meets at 4 pm in executive session, and meets in public section at 6 pm Monday. The public meeting may be viewed on the district’s YouTube channel here. The meetings are held at the Board Room at the ASD Education Center, 5530 E Northern Lights Blvd.
The pediatricians’ letter said:
“We are writing to you to encourage the Anchorage School District to continue to implement the AAP guidelines for mask use in schools. As you know, vaccines are the most effective tool we have to end the COVID-19 pandemic, but unfortunately, this is not providing the necessary levels of protection in Anchorage at this time. According to the Alaska COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard, the number of fully vaccinated 12-18—year—olds in the Anchorage Municipality is currently at 53% and the number of fully vaccinated 5-11-year-olds is at 14.3 %; both of these numbers are far below the national average for comparable ages. with these facts in mind, it is imperative that we protect our children by requiring masks in the setting where they spend the majority of their day.
“The AAP Clinical guidance states that “mask wearing has proven effective in reducing the transmission of virus from infected individuals. . and that “a significant portion of the student population is not yet vaccinated. Masks provide protection against COVID-19 for unvaccinated students and reduce transmission.” In addition, newer variants have demonstrated that they can continue to be spread by and to other vaccinated individuals, which makes masking a powerful tool in helping to protect the school community.
“In Alaska we are not yet seeing an influx of the Omicron variant, but we are still experiencing the continued wave of the Delta variant. A concern shared by many, is that numerous children will be traveling outside of Alaska for winter break or hosting out of state visitors in their homes. School resumes on January 3 and potentially exposed children will be returning to the classroom right after holiday break. As there are no travel testing requirements in place, we could potentially have children with COVID-19 returning to the classroom. It would be prudent to add a layer of safety and ensure that children are masked in school for a least several weeks after winter break.
“Given the effectiveness of safety precautions when used consistently, schools can remain open and safe for children. We know that children are at a higher risk of suffering mental health issues and developmental setbacks if they miss out on in- school learning due to COVID-19 illnesses or schools needing to close due to outbreaks. The best way to keep schools open with children in classrooms is to continue using best safety practices which include universal masking school-age children.
“The full AAP guidelines on masking and school health can be found here: COVID-I9 Guidance for Safe Schools (aaporg). The full document outlines the current concerns as well as full recommendations. We welcome you to contact our Alaska Chapter with any questions about the current AAP guidance.
Anna Ogena, MD, FAAP
Jody Butto, MD, FAAP
Lily Lou, MD, FAAP
Kevin Kollins, MD, FAAP
Matthew Serna, MD, FAAP
Patti Clay, MD, FAAP
Benjamin Westley, MD, FAAP
Makes me wonder what pediatricians know that local school officials don’t, and why we don’t pay attention to them.
Again, Homo, you display your ignorance and gullibility for all to see. How embarrassing for you.
.
I don’t wonder about these authoritarian pediatricians and their violation of the Hippocratic oath at all. They are simply more conformist sheep who are willing to bow to corrupt authority and who cannot bring themselves to think for themselves or to challenge the official narratives and agendas, no matter how self-serving, idiotic and untruthful those narratives and agendas may be. In this they show themselves to be as weak, cowardly and fallible as any other group of people. Clearly, wearing a white coat does not automatically confer any measure of wisdom, honesty or courage.
It does make you wonder. I always question what I don’t know.
Lots of question then, huh, Greg?
Absolutely. Never close your mind and think that you know it all. To do so only proves how ignorant you are.
Greg is still open minded to what 2+2 might equal. Hopefully he doesn’t listen to msnbc on that one.
Because they are worthless quack Karen’s and adherents of Faucciism like you.
We need to boycott the pediatricians. They are anti-science. Masking kids does not work, it is harmful to their development, and kids are not generally the ones at risk from COVID-19.
Apparently the local school officials aren’t the only ones not paying attention.
To the Faucciite propaganda.
I agree. At least they were kind enough to put their names on the letter so we know to whom we should never take our kids.
Probably the same worthless quacks that tried to Karen their fellow Doctors for treating their patients?
Apparently these pediatricians don’t even know the most basic facts about COVID-19. Virtually zero children die from the disease. So how does wearing masks, that catch all of their bacteria and keeps all that bacteria right by their nose and mouth while they go to school, protect them? The anchorage school board must understand that just because 50 zealots right in and only five regular citizens right in, that does not mean that 10 times the people are for keeping the mask mandates for our children.
And goes…
You are right Larry. Masks in children are useless, foolish anti-science. It is pointless child abuse.
It is time to restore all of our liberties that have been stolen by the tyrants. These doctors are violating their Hippocratic Oath, by this political science stunt. It is time to follow the actual science. Dr. Malone, who invented this terrible technology has a lot to say about vaccinating children, with a dangerous, untested, he reminds us it takes years to develop a safe vaccine. Everyone must remember there is NO FDA approved COVID vaccine, Comridity is still in the trials. All of these dangerous jabs remain in Emergency Authorization. Worse yet, the poison jab does nothing to stop the spread of COVID! We must have informed consent and transparency. If there is nothing to hide, why has Pfizer asked for information to not be release for 55 years. Why are there secret agreements with various governments? Why would parents want to harm their child with something that is so dangerous? Time to start remembering all of the names of these terrible people so they can be held accountable for their crimes against humanity! This is really about control, division and destroying America. Hold the line and stand up for your Constitutional Rights and protect your children from these monsters!
And keeps on going. When will it ever stop? When we all die of ignorance and stupidity?
There are ways to fight the virus. These are not they.
ATS, you are absolutely right. Only a dangerous moron is for masking kids and giving them the clot shot.
Blah, blah, blah…..the “virus” is never going to end, because they don’t want it to end.
BTW I’ve still yet to hear from “science” as to what happened with the good old cold and flu season?!
We need viruses to evolve. Fact!
Doesn’t it take repeatable experimentation to prove scientific fact? Or what other method? How does this claim (which may be true) rise to the level in science of ‘fact’?
They have. Where ya been?
Really? How do you do repeatable experimentation for a process that takes millennium? What do those experiments look like?
Masks are Make Believe. They offer no protection. Their weave is too loose to stop virus sized particles and they are bacteria/ virus collectors. Ridiculous!!!
Your ignorance is showing. The mask only stops the aerosols that contain the virus-the virus particles don’t operate on their own but hitch onto those aerosols.
And your ignorance, not to mention profound naivete and gullibility, are showing as well. Mass public mask wearing has been conclusively demonstrated, for decades, to have extremely little if any efficacy in preventing viral disease transmission. And ALL the evidence of the past two years, particularly in those insane leftist polities in which such authoritarian measures have been pursued with extreme zeal, only reinforces that conclusion.
.
But as usual with you irrational, illogical, completely divorced-from-reality radical leftist statists, the argument and (coercive) political agenda NEVER has anything to do with facts, logic or evidence — it is instead all about FEELINGS, and taking ritual and virtue-signaling measures, to (try to) make you feel both safe and self-righteous, but in both measures invariably totally failing.
Careful. Nobody wants to hear logic.
Your ignorance is showing. They statistically do nothing but act as a propaganda and control tool.
Face diapers are silly at best, diabolical fascism at worst.
Caterina is onto something here. She’s right that cloth masks don’t stop aerosol dispersion. But they do stop droplets. Kids are great droplet droppers. And N95 masks, the only truly worthwhile one to wear, are even partially successful against aerosol transmission.
Statistically they do nothing but trap your own bacteria at your mouth and nose and slightly reduce oxygenation (n95 more on the reduced oxygen). They don’t slow transmission of this virus or they would have in places where it was heavily tried and did nothing.
Requiring them on kids is pure abusive foolishness.
“Wearing surgical masks or other similar face coverings can reduce the emission of expiratory particles produced via breathing, talking, coughing, or sneezing.”
You might try spitting inside your mask and report back how far your spittle traveled.
So that early on had the best masking rates that usually had even slightly faster transmission rates didn’t actually have those higher transmission rates? I’ll let them know. (Who do you call to ‘inform a city’?)
Or try blowing out a candle with a mask on. But that’s not aerosol. That’s more droplet.
And again, as used they don’t do anything. Just get all humans to use all of the protocols perfectly that medical professionals are supposed to and you might climb into a difference that’s statistically perceptible.
That blowing out a candle is entirely aerosol! May be a few droplets from some kids.
Caterina didn’t mention stopping aerosol dispersion at all so how could she be “onto something here?” And nobody has even suggested masks “stop” that dispersion, but the “slowing” of it is what’s being pushed.
Yep. Too bad that they just don’t work and cause more harm than good (the way people use them, not to mention the damage to freedom by teaching sheeple to comply for no good reason).
She’s onto something about the usage of masks. They may range from worthless to probably somewhat effective, but it’s become so politicized it may be impossible to find out the truth.
She’s on to nothing! And your “they may range from worthless to probably somewhat effective” is nothing more that a wet finger up into the wind.
Get a grip here as you seem to be losing it.
It boggles the mind that pediatricians are actively trying to harm children. What in the name of God are they up to?
When was the time, when they were for their health anyway? Never!
They are coming from brainwashing institutions corrupted by Rockefellers in the early 1900. Look at the Flexner Report. Whole system is based on the Germ Theory, “Theory” is the key word here. That is why we are now in this mess with full swing of fear propaganda. Dig dipper into this. It is hard for a lot of people to embrace, that no one makes another sick. There is more, much more, then todays so called science can explain. And it is in no interest by forces of being discovered for truth, as the house of cards will crumble all the way.
“The Flexner Report transformed the nature and process of medical education in America with the resulting elimination of natural medicine schools, and the establishment of the biomedical pharmaceutical drug model as the gold standard of medical training. It is a book-length study of medical education in the U.S. and Canada, written by Abraham Flexner, was published and given to the U.S. Congress in 1910 under the endorsement and financial support of the Carnegie Foundation. Congress acted on the report’s conclusions and made them law. At the time, 155 medical schools existed in North America, and Flexner visited and conducted an in-depth evaluation of every school. Many aspects of the present-day American medical profession stem from the Flexner Report and its aftermath.
The Report (also called the Carnegie Foundation Bulletin Number Four) called on American medical schools to enact higher admission and graduation standards, and to adhere strictly to the protocols of mainstream science in their teaching and research. The report talked about the need for revamping and centralizing medical institutions. Many American medical schools fell short of the standard advocated in the Flexner Report, and after its publication, nearly half of the schools merged or were closed outright. Colleges in electrotherapy were closed. Homeopathy and natural medicines were run out of business. Some doctors were jailed. (11)”
‘https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/john-d-rockefeller-used-ama-take-western-medicine/’
Thats ridiculous Yankee, haven’t heard that one yet but I haven’t had much time to click on some fake news. Wearing a cloth mask is like trying to stop mosquitos with a chain link fence, any “real” doctor or professional will attest to that. Plus, wearing is “optional” wear one, two, or three masks if you feel the need. Get a radiation suit and some air tanks…lots of possibilities for those in fear.
I see that you are thinking this virus is flying about like mosquitos Jimbo. Keep em coming as we need the laughs.
The slippery slope: Just do this for 2 weeks, then 2 months, then 2 years, and now for the rest of your life. When are people gonna stand up and tell the &^$)#)Q!
Exactly! No one is even talking on these points anymore, they just forgot how it is all started……and it won’t end, until as the agenda is fully implemented and it is :
full digitalization and moving everyone on the credit score system. That “nice’ pass is not for the person to show their status, no, that’s just the start point and is already ready and just waiting, while they distract with mask, etc. .
‘https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/controversial-vaccine-passport-system-already-launched/ar-AARRe00?ocid=msedgntp’
If someone doesn’t know still about that “cool game’ that is created for slaves, take a look at China, how it plays for them.
The opinions of doctors vary widely (and wildly). Kids have a higher chance of getting hit by lightning than they do dying of covid. Masks are disgusting and unless they’re N95s aren’t really doing a whole lot with regard to covid. Most kids wear the same mask over and over without washing them, kids are touching them CONSTANTLY (and then touching everything else), and they don’t have constant, unfettered access to water and soap. Even if they did most wouldn’t use it and when they do, most don’t wash adequately. Hand sanitizer must be used in a particular way to be effective but I see most kids wiping their hands on their clothes after applying it. Those filthy things are doing the very opposite of protecting kids. Some good studies have already been done on what is living and growing on those things. For those arguing about the efficacy of masks, pay attention to the kind of masks that protect, it’s not the ones kids are wearing. Then, look at the data from areas in the country that have never masked and have both lower rates of covid and covid related deaths (whatever that has ever meant since the financial incentives have certainly inflated those numbers). When other districts have kept kids out of masks and continued in-person school plus extracurriculars and now, not only are they looking better from a covid position, but their kids didn’t suffer needlessly like ours did, I’d say these pediatricians need to practice some philosophic doubt and base their decisions on OUTCOMES versus models. Models are ok when outcomes aren’t available, but that simply isn’t the case anymore.
Note that, as aways, these folks claim that masks are effective but never cite to the actual studies that support this assertion. (Most studies on masks are subject to major conditions and limitation.). What they are doing is to rely on an “appeal to authority” or “experts” approach to avoid a real debate on masks. This approach will continue to be used for as long as it is successful. Time to reject and challenge.
Exactly. White could happen in absolute best case scenario with perfect adherence to protocol is meaningless. The actual numbers on the help that they have been (zero) is the only useful info.
Medical associations have proven themselves to be bureaucrats. They’re no better then unions speaking for workers who have no interest in the actual worker.
Parents, flood ASD with your emails for your opinion on what you want for your own children, not what a bureaucrat trying to save their job thinks.
Prior to making a decision on mask wearing, , I would want to poll the other 127 Pediatric Physicians in Anchorage to obtain their opinions. There has been so much information on wear masks, masks don’t work, let’s see what the other 127 Anchorage Pediatric Doctors have to say about masks.’ It always seems to me the minority mandates for the majority.Take a poll
Seven pediatricians put their names on that letter? Out of how many pediatricians in Anchorage?
Always great to breathe your own exhaust everyday
The pediatricians who signed this letter are anti-science quacks. I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them! Shocking ignorance. I’m not sure that trust in our current medical community will ever return to pre pandemic levels. The charlatans posing as experts have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.
We need to boycott every physician who is not anti-vaxx and anti-mask!
Professionals tend to socialize with professionals, and also tend to marry withing their own profession. This tends to trap them in group-think.
To socialize outside of their profession though is to subject themselves to stigma within their own profession.
Many have managed to avoid that stigma by becoming involved with established charitable groups, which permits mingling with those outside their profession, while usually creating a favorable opinion of them among their peers.
With a little creative thinking, one can broaden their horizons without bringing adverse reactions upon themselves.
Masking only prevents our own immune system from doing what it is designed to do. It hinders our own body to be able to fight whatever is out there. That is why masking our children is so detrimental. It also causes bacteria to build up in the lungs, causing pneumonia and many other bronchial problems. Rebreathing your own air is incredibly unhealthy. I recently reviewed articles about Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) which is commonly found in children. It causes Streptococcus pneumonia, mycoplasma pneumonia, and others. This C-19 is a virus that effects and attacks the lungs, and by not allowing fresh clean air to enter and only allowing your own breath back into the lungs is more than harmful and increases the risk of infection and bacteria, and other medical problems effecting the lungs. But low and behold, the kids get a cold (’tis the season!), get a PCR test (the test that the CDC said back in Sept. was unreliable — but will use until the end of the year), and the kids ‘test positive’ when they likely have RSV NOT C-19. The Spanish Flu did not kill thousands in the early 1912+, the lung infections from wearing masks did. This is all crap, and the mental health of our children wearing face diapers will last decades. And the jab’g of our kids? Don’t get me started on how stupid that is.
It’s just a mask. Pretty sure it doesn’t stop carbon dioxide or dirty oxygen. We’re not talking about putting a plastic bag over somebody’s head here. Sheesh!
Not a surprise but I just have to point it out. Your straw man comment is not really a reply. It does nothing to address what Joyce actually said (and she said it quite well).
But again, SOP for you.
Carry on.
Please disregard The American Academy of Pediatrics letter. Please understand the Pediatrics group along with the School Board are heavily involved with the Marxist movement.
“Communist organizations and influencers are gaining influence at local levels across the country. Here in Anchorage, the Democratic Socialists of America – a derivative of Communist Party USA – established an Anchorage chapter as recently as February 2018.
The American Academy of Pediatrics cannot be left out of the local Marxist movement equation.
As a national organization, AAP influencers are deployed and working at the local
the level”
The Pediatric doctors are doctors second or third at best and hell raisers as the primary reason for being. The mask issue is a ploy and nothing more
Worldwide studies have conclusively demonstrated that masks, when worn correctly, prevent 53+% of transmission of covid. It would be excessively stupid to lift the mandate just before Omicron, which is 70x more contagious than Delta, arrives! It would be harder on the kids to have the mandate reinstated, as would undoubtedly happen, likely way too late! The flu is here, though not as bad as it could be because of the current mandate, and the vaccine for flu is a mismatch so we don’t have a good vaccine for the strain that is circulating most. It will hit hard soon. And it will be holding hands with Omicron! This will be a winter of sickness and death in Anchorage, and Omicron is hitting young people and children hard! The symptoms are slightly different than Delta but the disease isn’t. However, it’s been proven that it damages sperm in males so we should see an increase in spontaneous abortions and birth defects within the next year or so. Stay well. Get vaccinated!
Esthera, please come back and try to post something less hysterical and emotive after you go put out the fire in your hair.
Really? Did you know that 53+% of statistics are made up right on the spot?
Again (and again and again and again and…), Statistically they do nothing but trap your own bacteria at your mouth and nose and slightly reduce oxygenation (n95 more on the reduced oxygen). They don’t slow transmission of this virus or they would have in places where it was heavily tried and did nothing. Again, in the leftist cities where masks were heavily tried, it did NOTHING!
Requiring them on kids is pure abusive foolishness.
Also, again (and again and again and again and…), the clot shot is dangerous and ineffective against a virus that isn’t at all serious for the VAST MAJORITY of the population. As the Great Barrington Declaration says, protect those that actually need the protection (pro tip: science says it’s not the children). Do not give kids the clot shot. We are against animal cruelty. Can we be also against cruelty to children? Please?
If the clot shot works good, then why isn’t it working good?
Comments are closed.