Masks and physical distancing are proving to have major fringe benefits, keeping people from getting all kinds of illnesses not just covid-19. But its unclear whether the protocols will be worth the pain in the long run.
The teachers at New Hope Academy in Franklin, Tennessee, were chatting the other day. The private Christian school has met in person throughout much of the pandemic requiring masks and trying to keep kids apart, to the degree it is possible with young children. And Nicole Grayson, who teaches fourth grade, said they realized something peculiar.
We dont know anybody that has gotten the flu, she said. I dont know of a student that has gotten strep throat.
Its not just an anecdote.
A in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, led by researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, found that across 44 childrens hospitals the number of pediatric patients hospitalized for respiratory illnesses is down 62%. The number of kids in the U.S. who have died of the flu this season remains in the . Deaths have dropped dramatically, too, compared with the past 10 years: The number of flu deaths among children is usually between 100 and 200 per year, but so far only has died from the disease in the U.S. during the 2020-21 flu season.
Adults arent getting sick either. U.S. flu deaths this season in the hundreds instead of thousands. In 2018-19, a moderate flu season, an died.
Effective Combo
Its not just the masks and physical distancing that are tamping down communicable disease, said , a pediatrician at Mercy Community Healthcare, a Tennessee clinic that gets federal funding. Its become a serious societal faux pas to go anywhere with a fever so parents dont send their ailing kids to school, she said.
They are doing a better job of staying home when theyre sick, Vehec said. That includes adults who may feel ill.
Isolating when feeling bad could be kept up after the pandemic. But the isolation, the distance and the masks are not working for many kids, Vehec said.
Children with speech trouble arent seeing their teachers mouth to learn how to speak correctly, for instance.
I think it has been a necessary evil because of the pandemic, and I have completely supported it, but it has had prices. Its had consequences, she said. Kids education is suffering, among other things.
And with covid vaccines unavailable to children for a while yet, it may be another year of masks in schools.
Some experts, like , argue that more societies should embrace masking as some Asian countries have. But even infectious-disease experts like of the University of Alabama-Birmingham doubt that’s practical.
Im a little skeptical that this crisis will be enough for a widespread culture change, given how difficult its been to achieve a reasonable culture shift in the previous months, Franco said.
The most realistic setting for lasting change may be within health care itself.
Doctors and nurses didn’t usually wear masks before covid. , who directs an emergency department for an HCA hospital outside Nashville, mentioned a physician colleague who has worn a mask since he got out of medical school.
We used to joke and clown with him about this, Harrison said. “Until this.
Now that everyone wears masks, Harrisons department has found the same thing many other workplaces have: Employees arent calling out sick, unless its covid.
When covids done, this is a practice that most of us will probably continue, Harrison said. Because we wont be worried about runny-nose kids and elderly people who dont know theyre sneezing in your face.
Some hospital systems, including , have started to relax universal masking requirements for their staffs. But even vaccinated staffers still have to wear a mask when seeing patients. Intermountain Healthcare in Utah has masks will continue to be required when a statewide mandate lifts in April.
Is Everyone Going to Need a Break?
But even believers in the effectiveness of masks have their doubts about the medical community keeping it up.
The larger question is: Is everyone going to need a break? asked , who studies infectious diseases at Boston University.
Whatever the future holds, public health officials say, the time has not yet come to drop mask requirements as the U.S. waits for more people to get a covid vaccine. But eventually, even doctors and nurses are ready to see smiling faces again.
I know Im going to need to retire my masks at some point in the future, Barocas said, for a little bit.
This story is part of a partnership that includes , and KHN.
