The Branch Hillsdale St. Joseph Community Health Agency (BHSJ) will recommend universal masking for the upcoming K-12 school year, according to Health Officer Rebecca Burns.
Burns gave the department’s annual report on Tuesday, August 3 to the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners, and answered questions from commissioners regarding the county’s ongoing battle with COVID-19. Commissioner Jared Hoffmaster told Burns while he’s been an advocate for “getting shots in arms,” he doesn’t believe in mandating masks in schools.
“We are recommending universal masking in K-12 when they go back to school this year,” Burns said. “(We’re) meeting next Monday and part of our conversation will be ‘is the board of health supportive of a mandate from the local health department?'”
Burns said the board of health has been reluctant to issue a mandate, and schools have been under pressure to not require masks when kids return in the fall. Hoffmaster said he’s “very against mandating (masks)” because everyone “12 and up have the ability to get the vaccine, so if you choose not to get the vaccine the consequences fall on your shoulders.”
It should be noted that even after being fully vaccinated, only 50 percent of people who are immunocompromised show an antibody response to COVID-19, an aspect of the ongoing pandemic that was not discussed during Tuesday’s meeting. According to John Hopkins transplant surgeon Dorry Segev, MD, PhD, who has been conducting research on the immune responses of people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, those with autoimmune deficiencies can be fully vaccinated and remain unprotected. The fact that children under 12 have not yet been cleared for vaccination, and are therefore more at risk of contracting the virus and spreading it to others was also not discussed Tuesday.
Commissioner Kathy Pangle applauded Burns’ efforts through “a stressful year,” thanking Burns for her “leadership and all of the teamwork and all of the organization and clinics (BHSJ) did.”
“Thank you. It’s been a very tough year for the health department and unfortunately it’s continuing (to be),” Burns said. “But you know what? We have a very dedicated staff that cares a lot about the citizens, and today we did Project Connect and gave about 40 vaccinations for COVID, so that’s a success, a huge success actually. It sounds little but we’ve been seeing a huge decline in the number of individuals interested in getting the COVID vaccine but the incentive has seemed to work. A $50 gas card is a driver, especially for young folks. So we had quite a few people come through today, which is absolutely wonderful.”
Commissioner Dan Czajkowski asked Burns why she believed St. Joseph County is lagging behind in terms of vaccinations, to which Burns said she’s “heard everything.”
“Our staff has heard everything, we’ve heard there’s a reluctance due to religion, a reluctance due to disbelief, misinformation — like it ’causes infertility,’ well it doesn’t but people still hang onto that, right? — or it hasn’t been studied enough, ‘it’s emergency use, when it gets full approval then I’ll get it but I’m not getting it until then.’ I mean, we could just go on forever.”
Burns said there are “lots and lots of reasons” why the county is below the state average in vaccination rates but for her, it boils down to an “individualistic” mindset. “A lot of folks who live down here are individualistic. So it’s rural, they’re distanced a lot from other people naturally, and so it’s hard for them to see why is this really necessary, you know, ‘I’m OK.’ […] But there are so many reasons, so, so many reasons.”
Alek Haak-Frost is executive editor of Watershed Voice.
