We only need 76 more signatures to reach 500! Will you get at least one more person to sign and share?
Petitions in other states are rapidly gaining momentum with thousands of signatures. But here in Vermont, we are struggling to get to 500. Is that because we feel safe with our high vaccination rate?
The truth is that Vermont has done an incredible job getting vaccinated - but it's not enough. The vaccines are still preventing the most serious outcomes, but they are less effective at preventing people from catching Delta. We also know that vaccinated people transmit Delta, which is estimated to be as contagious as chickenpox. It will grow exponentially without strong public health measures in place like universal masking in schools, where half of our unvaccinated population will be spending most of their time starting next week.
For a real-world example of what is likely to happen here just look to Israel. Despite vaccination levels country-wide similar to Vermont's, they are experiencing rapid case growth and a huge Delta surge. Many of the early outbreaks have been linked to unvaccinated children in schools. This just goes to show that even if you - or your friends - don't have children in the school system, what happens in Vermont's schools will impact you.
The New York Times wrote on August 18th:
"A fourth wave of infections is rapidly approaching the levels of Israel’s worst days of the pandemic last winter. The daily rate of confirmed new virus cases has more than doubled in the last two weeks...By June, Israelis, convinced the worst was over, had abandoned social distancing and other precautions...
“Everyone went about the business of trying to put the memory of a very difficult year and a half behind them,” said Prof. Ran Balicer, chairman of an expert panel that advises the Israeli government on Covid response.
The problem, he said, was that what was true for the original virus “did not necessarily hold true for future variants coupled with waning immunity.”
Seeing infection levels dropping in the spring, and determined to reboot the economy, Israel retired its electronic pass system, eased travel bans and lifted all other restrictions. The last to go was the indoor mask mandate on June 15.
Days earlier, however, a family had returned from a Greek vacation to the central city of Modiin, a middle-class commuter hub between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. More than 90 percent of its residents 12 and over are vaccinated, according to its mayor, Haim Bibas, making it one of Israel’s most vaccinated cities.
But the family included a child too young to be vaccinated, and who should have spent at least 10 days in home quarantine pending a negative PCR test, according to the regulations at the time.
Instead, the parents sent the child to school. Ultimately, about 80 students were infected with the Delta variant.
“The child wasn’t to blame,” Mr. Bibas said, indirectly pointing a finger at the parents.
A second outbreak occurred almost simultaneously in similar circumstances in a school in the north."
We need universal masking in schools this year, and we need to make this decision now - not after school outbreaks have already started to spur higher levels of transmission and hospitalization. Time is running out. School starts in 5 days. The Department of Ed only requiring universal masking for 10 days is simply not enough.
If you want to do even more, call Dan French and Gov Scott (numbers below) to say you support universal masking in schools.
- Dan French: 802-828-1130
- Gov Scott: 802 828-3333
Phone numbers are from the State of Vermont website.