The following letter is being sent to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.  Please sign to indicate your support

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TO: 
Secretary Sudders, Exec. Office of Health & Human Services 
Commissioner Cooke, MA Department of Public Health
Asst. Commissioner Cranston, MA Department of Public Health
Dr. Madoff, Bureau of Infectious Disease & Laboratory Sciences
Dr. Brown, Bureau of Infections Disease & Laboratory Sciences

CC: Governor Baker, Lieutenant Governor Polito, Secretary Peyser, Commissioner Riley, Commissioner Aigner-Treworgy

We are parents and concerned citizens, writing on behalf of children in Massachusetts. After more than 18 months of constantly moving goal posts related to COVID protocols and restrictions on children, our patience is wearing thin and our frustration is mounting. Adults’ lives have largely returned to normal, yet children of the Commonwealth remain masked in school buildings and face stricter testing and quarantine protocols than anywhere else in the state, with no end in sight. 

Today, we issue an urgent call for a transparent and factual information campaign from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MA DPH).  We call on MA DPH to actively and consistently communicate to the public the minimal risk that COVID presents to most children; the continued low-rate of pediatric hospitalizations from COVID in MA, even with the Delta variant; and the corollary public health concern related to children’s mental health, for which continued restrictions and isolation are a contributing factor.

In the absence of such active, transparent messaging, children continue to be caught in yet another loop of conflicting communication between state guidance and local implementation. For example, local boards of health disregard DESE off-ramps for masking in schools, devise their own metrics (often unachievable and inconsistent), and then lament the lack of consistent clarity from the state. Similarly, for over a year, we have seen local districts create their own in-school protocols that fall well outside of DESE/DPH guidance, creating restrictions on children at the local level that go far beyond recommendations from the state public health agency. While DESE assures the public that their guidance is developed in collaboration with MA DPH, our state public health agency has been largely silent and invisible regarding the data on children and COVID.

In short, the data may exist in MA DPH dashboards but is not actively messaged; consequently, the fearful news gets amplified and, as a result, local policy making on school-children goes far beyond what the evidence warrants. State leadership must engage in a transparent messaging campaign that cites the available evidence, provides clarity on the ultimate objective of in-school mitigation, and assures the public that children can experience a normal environment both in and out of school. We have already seen such a commitment to transparency from MA DPH with respect to building trust in vaccination. At a joint meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society and MA DPH in December 2020, Dr. Madoff offered assurance that MA DPH is “developing a comprehensive communication strategy [on vaccination] in the Commonwealth. We work very hard to convey truthful, transparent information about the vaccine.” [1] 

We urgently request that this same commitment to conveying truthful, transparent information be applied to the data-on-the-ground relative to COVID and children, specifically emphasizing: 

(1)  The sustained low-rate of COVID-related pediatric hospitalizations in Massachusetts. Rates of hospitalization from COVID remain extremely low in MA and the state has maintained a low rate even with the presence of the Delta variant.  This data exists within the MA DPH COVID dashboard itself, but is rarely (if ever) conveyed publicly. The magnitude of this point is perhaps best captured in a recent article by Dr. Joseph G. Allen: “In highly-vaccinated New England, the hospitalization rate right now for kids under 17 is 7 per 10 million….And these are overestimates of hospitalization risk for 5-to-11-year olds, since the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s data lumps them together with the slightly higher risk 12-to-17 year olds.” [2]

(2) The need for alignment in school-related messaging/approach between MA DPH and local Boards of Health.  Guidance put forth by DESE to school districts is developed in collaboration with MA DPH to reflect the evidence here in Massachusetts. Yet, many local boards of health claim they have been tasked by MA DPH with a “zero transmissions'' goal which largely conflicts with school-based guidance from the state. It surely is not sound public health policy to have 350+ districts across the state disregarding DPH-endorsed guidance, while independently developing their own policies; especially when many of these policies are unscientific (i.e., plexiglass stations for lunch) and detrimentally impact children’s mental health, social development, and education. 

(3) The context behind any data on transmission among children.  A singular, hyper-focus on case counts must be put into context with the data and evidence. A recent study garnered public attention for its acknowledgement that transmissions among children will occur, and yet, the context within the same study demonstrated that children under age 15 who were positive for COVID-19 largely experienced no symptoms or mild symptoms [3]. Surely MA DPH can lead in messaging this important context, by emphasizing that any data on case transmissions must be coupled with severity of illness for a complete picture, particularly for the younger age group.

In Spring 2021, MA DPH supported a move to 3-feet of distance in school buildings, despite the CDC’s guidance to maintain 6-feet. This evidence-based change was the right decision: we saw no increase in MA community transmissions following the change, and children were able to return to full-time, in-person schooling across the state. In this instance, MA DPH and the medical community took an evidence-based stance that appropriately weighed the trade-offs to children’s education and development. 

We are asking you to do the same now. Children in this state have suffered the most restrictive COVID mitigation measures; this despite their age group being the least likely to be affected by COVID but the most likely to see longer term impacts from continued restrictions in their educational environments.  Please take the lead. Please share the facts. Please do right by the children and families of the Commonwealth - they deserve your full transparency.

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[1] http://www.massmed.org/Patient-Care/COVID-19/Massachusetts-DPH-Call-Summary---December-2,-2020/ 

[2] Allen, Joseph. “Schools should do away with mask mandates by the end of the year.” Washington Post, 19 October 2021, 

[3] Lael M Yonker, et al. “Virologic features of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children”, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Published: 14 October 2021.