Former CDC official warns schools may close down more this year than last due to Delta variant

‘I think this fall is going to be really challenging for schools,’ says Richard Besser, a former CDC acting director

Schools across the United States may be “forced to shut down” more than last year amid the surging Delta variant impacting infection rates and hospitalisations, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official has warned.

Richard Besser, who served as the acting CDC director in 2009 under President Barack Obama, told NBC’s TODAY that the Delta variant becoming the most dominant strain of the novel virus could lead to school closures.

“I expect that [the variant is] going to jump around different classrooms and schools will be forced to shut down more than they did in fact last year,” Mr Besser said.

“I think this fall is going to be really challenging for schools,” he added. “I think children belong in the classroom. But what we’re going to see is little outbreaks, clusters in different schools, schools shutting down, reopening.”

The official added that it should be a priority to limit the number of times a school might need to close due to outbreaks, and “wearing masks for everyone will help to accomplish that”.

Schools across the country were grappling with whether they should implement mask mandates ahead of the start of the academic year.

Currently, children under the age of 12 are unable to receive a Covid-19 vaccine – making the push to issue mask mandates in schools more prevalent.

Mr Besser said that not only were mask mandates important, but that parents should receive a Covid-19 vaccine if they haven’t already, to protect their children.

“That’s the most important thing you can do to protect your child,” he said about vaccination. “But what we’re going to see is schools doing their best to keep children in the classroom, but recognising when there’s significant spreading in school, they may need to shut down for a period of time to let things cool down.”

Despite pressure from health officials for schools to implement masking mandates, several government officials have put barriers in place that would prevent these requirements.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order last month that required the state’s health and education departments to create rules regarding parents’ rights to make healthcare decisions for their children. This executive order essentially prohibited issuing mask mandates in school districts.

Then the governor’s office further heightened the pressure on school districts by announcing that the state board of education could move to withhold salaries from superintendents and school board members who disregard last month’s executive order.

Several lawsuits have been filed against the executive order, challenging its constitutionality.

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott has signed a similar executive order that would ban mask mandates. It was also announced that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) would not require schools to do contact tracing if someone tests positive for Covid-19.

The contact tracing announcement prompted Austin Independent School District, which serves about 75,000 students, to announce they would not be following TEA’s guidance and would be implementing contact tracing.

Battles over Covid-19 guidance in states for school districts comes as there has been an uptick in children contracting the novel virus, according to a American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association report.

“As of 5 August, nearly 4.3 million children have tested positive for Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic,” the AAP report reads. “Almost 94,000 cases were added the past week, a continuing substantial increase. After declining in early summer, child cases have steadily increased since the beginning of July.”