PRESS NYC Responds to Mayor Adams’ School Safety Plans

As NYC schools return from Winter break amidst rampant spread of the Omicron variant of COVID, some have mistaken widespread vaccination to mean this outbreak is less concerning, while others erroneously presume that the “milder” manifestation of Omicron means it’s “just like the common cold.”

These misconceptions have taken root due to narratives propagated in media and by elected leaders — so we want to be very clear about why they’re false and dangerous:

• Vaccines protect but do not prevent infection or transmission of this virus.
• Milder symptoms may be good news, but it’s reckless to assume every case will be mild, as we are seeing hospitals fill up and the possibility that our healthcare system will be overwhelmed by illness again.
• It is premature to downplay the potential for Long COVID, when “3 to 10 million Americans are experiencing symptoms…which are varied and ongoing, including neurological challenges, cognitive problems such as brain fog, shortness of breath, fatigue, pain, and mobility issues.”
• “Long COVID can happen no matter what virus variant occurs,” Dr. Fauci said. “There’s no evidence that there’s any difference between delta or beta or now omicron.” “We should always be aware that when people get symptomatic infection … anywhere from 10 to up to 30 plus percent of people will go on to have persistence of symptoms,” he added, noting that even mild cases are included in that possibility.

After Bill de Blasio unveiled his “Homecoming” guidelines in late summer 2021, we put out a Blueprint in response. We advocated for a whole city indoor mask mandate to keep rates down so that schools would have fewer cases. We called for greater dialogue with families and pointed to data that predicted we would see high rates of spread if we didn’t strengthen mitigations. We also compared NYC with LA to show what an actual “gold standard” consists of.

What happened? The previous mayor’s strategy was a vaccine-only approach and a tepid plea for indoor masking beyond schools or the MTA. Governor Hochul tried to put in place stricter testing and mask mandates, but ultimately let the de Blasio administration ignore them. The UFT and CSA have blustered but have not insisted on stronger mitigations, even when Gothamist revealed that the mayor had purchased substandard purifiers for schools, putting some schools at higher risk.

Each week, an average of 4.5% of students were tested, with fewer and fewer teachers in the testing pool as the year progressed. Most weeks, 85% of cases came from outside labs, something that has proven difficult in recent weeks. The State, which reports out antigen as well as PCR positives for 5–17 year olds, counted 50,000 more cases this school year than the city did.

This is a particularly interesting piece of information when we consider the claim that COVID is generally not being passed among students. If students are not tested (because of a weak in school testing protocol) and their antigen results are not counted (a policy choice), how can this flawed generalization be presented as truth?

We hoped Mayor Adams would bring new messages — more truthful science-based ones — but he is also ignoring skyrocketing cases (10,000 in the past 9 days of school) and tells us that schools are safer than our homes. Our children are already experiencing any risks posed in their homes, so it’s very hard to understand how adding schools to the mix is “safer.” And with cases doubling every 4–5 days right now, we know that going to school, where kids unmask for lunch, adds additional risks.

The Omicron variant has already infected many fully vaccinated and boosted staff members. 1 in 22 school staff tested positive in the last 9 days of school. To be clear: School staff’s infection rates are more than double the 1 in 50 rate Manhattan is experiencing right now. 58% of 5–17 year olds are not vaccinated and kids under five — our youngest learners — cannot be. We are averaging 100 COVID positive pediatric hospital admissions a day in NYC, a 525% increase.

We aren’t asking for what’s ideal. We are asking for the bare minimum to stop the flood: rising cases in our schools, rising cases in our pediatric hospitals, and schools with too many staff out sick.

1. Pause to do baseline PCR testing and require staff and students to have a negative test to return.( If needed, shift Professional Development days to Jan 3–5 and allow teachers this time to plan virtually.)
2. Institute an opt-out consent policy for testing, similar to that used for the DESSA screener.
3. Test everyone who consents to testing weekly (3K and up) and if this number is less than 50% of students in a school, make all efforts to bring this number up. (Why 50%? The DOE has been doing “surveillance” testing but has never used an increase in prevalence numbers to act. A move to screening testing could at least lead to fewer cases in our schools.)
4. Require and provide N95/KN94 masks for all staff and students free at schools.
5. Enable school nurses to vaccinate or provide weekly pop-ups, especially at schools with lower vaccination rates. Create a culturally responsive, language-accessible hotline where parents can call in and ask questions about vaccination.
6. Create thresholds for school closure and mandate public information-sharing so families and staff know what’s going on. The DOE does not test all students in a school to see if there has been spread. Don’t waste time doing investigations, allow schools to make these calls for themselves once thresholds are met. For example:We will temporarily close schools that have ___ % teachers or ___% students infected in a two week period. (Consult with public health leaders, not employed by the city, to determine these percentages).
7. Test-to-stay — we have a lot of questions. Since COVID is airborne and so many DOE rooms are not protected by HEPA filters or CO2 monitoring, the whole class should be a close contact of a case. If the whole class gets a kit, that could be safer than what’s been happening (no notification when there is a case in the class beyond ill-defined “close contacts”). But if this is just allowing close contacts not to quarantine, it’s not going to provide any more safety and will possibly provide less.
8. A full-day, remote academy for families who want a virtual option for a longer period of time, with the guarantee of their seat back at their home school, with no penalty to the school, financial or otherwise.
9. Create an attendance code for families quarantining as a precaution while waiting for COVID test results or for families who are choosing to keep their children out due to safety concerns, overall. Stop calling ACS on families concerned about COVID risks.
10. A vaccine mandate for students will decrease their risk of severe illness. All of the above is still necessary as it will take weeks to reach 100% compliance.
11. Listen to the concerns of administrators who have made it clear that the Situation Room is failing them. Address these concerns and share all of this with the public.
12. Enforce staff two-shot mandate and consider upgrading it to include boosters.
13. Walkback the new and dangerous shortened quarantine for staff that does not require a negative test to return (see below).

From DOE’s daily health screener for staff

No one is advocating for a return to full-time long-term remote schooling for all children in New York City. We have seen the value of in-person schooling for many if not most students. But a few weeks of remote learning in order to stop the spread of the Omicron variant will not do as much damage to our children as will an uncontrolled continuation of sickness and unpredictable closures, and will allow in-person schooling to be more consistent and sustainable. What’s more, buildings could still be open for those who most need to be there. But the current situation virtually guarantees exposure,illness, and ongoing closures because rates are so high and mitigations so weak. Our children can understand that we make short-term sacrifices for the long-term greater good, so we can prioritize both learning and safety for all. They can also understand that we love them and don’t want them or their loved ones to get sick. In fact, it is far worse to train them to ignore the full picture to serve the interests of those who put profit first and people second.* Even our youngest students see that their peers or teachers are out and some of them have experienced or are experiencing losses of family members. All of the measures we are asking for aim to minimize these outcomes and mitigate the already clear risks that the Omicron variant presents.

Note: Much of the data mentioned in this statement came from our dashboard.

*“The city’s economy can’t manage another wave of shutdowns, Adams reiterated.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-30/nyc-s-adams-vows-vaccine-and-test-regime-keeps-private-mandate