4 May 2021
On Tuesday’s “CNN Tonight,” JAMA Pediatrics Editor in Chief Dr. Dimitri Christakis criticized the CDC’s “unnecessarily draconian” guidelines for summer camps and said that the sacrifices children have made “will have long-term implications for their social and emotional development. We really must prioritize doing everything we can to normalize their lives as soon as possible.”
Christakis said, “Well, I do think it’s unnecessarily draconian. You know, it’s really disappointing to see that the recommendations for summer camps are about where they were last year. Actually, in some ways, they’re more strict than they were last year. And we’ve learned a lot in the past year. We’ve learned that transmission outdoors is rarer. We’ve known that young children transmit less frequently than older children, and of course, we have a vaccine that’s available.”
CDC s summer camp guidance unfairly draconian, cruel to our children, scientists say Follow Us
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Question of the Day In this July 14, 2020, file photo, amid concerns of the spread of COVID-19, science teachers Ann Darby, left, and Rosa Herrera check-in students before a summer STEM camp at Wylie High School in Wylie, Texas. Schools and camps across . more > By Jessica Chasmar - The Washington Times - Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Several doctors and scientists are speaking out against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 guidance for summer camps as “unfairly draconian” and “cruel to our children.”
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The COVID restrictions from the Biden administration have become so onerous and illogical that even left-wing media outlets have begun to take notice. At the top of her 2:00 p.m. ET hour show on Tuesday, MSNBC anchor Katy Tur read from a
New York magazine article openly mocking “irrational” Centers for Disease Control rules demanding children wear masks at all times outdoors while attending summer camp.
“Then there is the continued confusion over CDC guidance about masks,” Tur told viewers before citing the magazine article:
The CDC’s newly released guidance for summer camps is notable for its rigidity and strictness. Masks must be worn at all times, even outdoors, by everyone, including vaccinated adults and children as young as two years old. The exceptions are for eating and swimming. (The guidance helpfully notes that if a person is having trouble breathing or unconscious, no masks needs to be worn.)
CDC releases cruel summer camp rules after 60 closed in last year: Masks must be worn indoors and outdoors, no toy sharing and kids must be 3ft apart
CDC has been slammed for releasing new guidance for summer camps that require campers to wear masks during outdoor activities
According to the CDC, campers should wear masks for sports and athletic activities done outdoors when possible and with the exception of swimming
Experts blasted this guidance as draconian with one infectious disease scientist saying requiring kids to wear masks at camps is unfair and cruel to our children
Most of the roughly 9,000 overnight camps weathered the storm thanks to federal aid including Paycheck Protection Program loans last year
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A trio of new studies describe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on public school students and staff, one finding that a quarter of children and teens in Chicago schools were stressed after school closures and the implementation of distance learning, another showing that coronavirus cases were elevated in schools that took few or no mitigation measures, and the last concluding that in-person learning in New York City public schools wasn t tied to increased viral infections.
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The first study, led by researchers from Children s Hospital of Chicago and published yesterday in
JAMA Network Open, consisted of an anonymous survey of 32,217 caregivers of Chicago public school students 3 or 4 months after the COVID-19 pandemic forced school closures and the implementation of online learning.