Virginia state health commissioner weighs in on new mask law - WHSV

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Thursday was the first day in years that some students around the commonwealth saw their classmate’s smiling face. This is after a law was passed Wednesday leaving it up to parents to decide whether kids wear masks in schools.

The basis behind the new law that was passed mainly concerns parents having a choice for what’s best for their child. It comes at a point in the pandemic where COVID cases are quickly declining.

This has been a debate for quite some time now that finally has been settled in favor of parents deciding. Acting state health commissioner Dr. Colin Greene said it shouldn’t impact much in terms of general health.

“Between November and January, the parts of the state, the regions of the state where the omicron variant spread the quickest were actually the urban and sub-urban areas where there are a lot more people going around wearing masks than there are in the rural areas and yet the COVID spread or omicron spread the most quickly in those regions,” Greene said.

Greene also said that the omicron variant is simply different than other variants.

“Omicron is a different animal from alpha through delta and mu, the last one we looked at. Those seem more susceptible to having their spread slowed with a mask but omicron is just so extraordinarily contagious that it spread widely wherever it went pretty much regardless of what was done,” Green said.

Short-term studies have also hinted there are learning difficulties for children with masks in the classroom.

“If you have a child in school who is hearing impaired, they might have difficulty just because they can’t understand what somebody is saying. Under a mask they can’t read lips either,” Greene said.

Masks also seem to hinder learning social skills as emotions are harder to read with masks on.

While we can’t predict the future, Green said it’s looking unlikely that another variant like delta will emerge but adjustments can be made if necessary.

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source: https://www.whsv.com/2022/02/18/state-health-commissioner-weighs-new-mask-law/

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