For some of our kids,
this is the last weekend of
summer vacation Boise School
District starts class on Monday,
but for a lot of others there's still
a few days and even a couple weeks
left and during that time we're bound
to hear more discussions and arguments
about whether those kids in an effort
to curb the rising spread of the
coronavirus should be required to
wear face coverings in the classroom,
in the hallways indoors.
The Boise School District has
already decided to follow the
CDC and Central District health
guidelines and make masks mandatory
indoors for the other districts.
It remains optional.
We wanted to take a look at this
discussion issue from or this issue.
I should say from two different angles,
the scientific side and the psychological
side of going with the optional option.
First,
let's layout the facts and the
scenario for the scientific side.
The Delta variant is the dominant
strain in Idaho at this point.
A version far more contagious
than the original COVID-19.
And we're seeing numbers now we haven't
seen since the tail end of the last surge.
It's more contagious,
scientists say because of what they
call the viral load or the density
of the viral particles in your body.
That's the amount of virus that
they're finding in the nose
and throat of those infected.
And with Delta it's much higher,
like by a lot.
A study has shown the viral particles
of delta to be 1260 times higher
than the OG strain of COVID,
and Delta has been pretty prevalent
with kids unlike the previous.
Versions with 12 and under Enable
unable to get the vaccine.
Right now that has that potential with
that spread has become quite the problem,
so we wanted to ask Doctor
David Pate about this.
Doctor Pate is the former CEO
of Saint Luke's health system.
He has experience with crisis
care standards from his time in
Texas and he's a member of the
Governors Coronavirus Working Group.
So we brought him a potential schoolroom
scenario that is likely this fall in
a school where masks are not required.
A classroom filled with 20 to 30 kids,
some wearing masks,
many not.
What can happen with a kid who
isn't wearing one.
If a child is in that room and has delta,
the first thing is they may or may not
know they're sick, so they may be.
They may be asymptomatic, but they will
have this very high level of virus.
What happens is the virus gets in the air,
it gets in the air from talking,
breathing, coughing, sneezing, yelling,
singing, whatever they're doing.
That's how it gets in the air. Doctor
Pate says there are two ways the virus
spreads, one being respiratory droplets.
The saliva and secretions coming out
of your mouth when you do the talking.
Coughing and singing things and those
particles are usually large enough
to see if you put a glass screen in
front of your face while doing them.
If that respiratory droplet
then lands on your face and
you're not wearing the mask,
it could be introduced into your
nose or throat, or they could
land on your desk. Then you
touch them, then touch your face.
The other form of transmission
is airborne airborne.
We're talking about now.
Much smaller amounts. Doctor
Pate says while droplets will
drop to the ground and because
of gravity, usually within six
feet, aerosols are lighter aerosols travel
on air streams throughout the room,
and so this is how people that
are sitting across the room
could actually get infected.
The CDC believes.
Respiratory droplets are still the
primary way people get infected,
but I will tell you, I think there's
very little certainty of this,
and certainly when we hear the cases
where large numbers of people are being
infected and weren't necessarily in close,
that's probably aerosol.
So wearing a mask is going to
cover the notion and and mouth,
so at least those big particles
that I talked about on the the
glass or mirror they're going
to get held up in this and not.
Travel to you as much
and doctor Pate says,
a study released last year
showed masks also helped.
Slow aerosol transmission
doesn't eliminate it,
but it decreases it significantly.
Now, on the flip side,
you wearing the mask in the room.
If I'm infected.
If I'm not wearing a mask and
I am projecting both droplets
and aerosols in the room,
at least this mask will provide some
degree of a barrier to you breathing in.
These virus droplets that I'm
putting out there won't be perfect,
but it will decrease it.
We've had this a couple of
times and people point this out.
How could a mask like this a disposable
mask or cloth mask that people use?
Be effective against something like an
aerosol. Yeah, I I was surprised as well.
Yeah, but the studies came
out last year and showed.
The first thing is having the mask
is actually decreases the amount
of aerosols you put into the room.
The second thing is if you wear it
properly it won't decrease it 100%
but it decreases it significantly.
And frankly, if the virus is going to
be in the air that you're in, then.
Your your next big hope is,
at least it decreased the amount
of virus that you get exposed to,
because perhaps you'll get you
might get exposed to virus,
but it'll be less than what
we call the infectious dose.
The amount of virus that it would
take to infect you, and even if not,
if you do get infected,
we still have reasonably the last
virus you get infected with the
less severe your illness will be,
so those are the benefits.
It's not 100%.
But it is going to give you a huge help.
It's just like a bulletproof
vest isn't 100% effective either.
But if somebody shooting at me
I sure would like to have one.
OK, so that's the scientific side of
some kids wearing masks and some not.
And you heard Doctor Pate mentioned
studies that have shown these things.
Studies seemed kind of general,
we know, but like Sean asked a couple
of days ago or rather requested,
please bring to all of our attention
that scientific research showing
masks help stop spreading COVID-19.
Well, we did ask Doctor Pate about this,
but even he admitted there isn't a
specific website where all of these
studies are being collected right now.
They're kind of all over the place,
he suggested.
Starting with the CDC website,
the National Institute of Health website,
you could even look at a
website called Sid Rap,
but again start with the CDC and the NIH,
and then search masks.
We've also included some links
in this story at kate.com.
OK, So what about the psychological side?
The peer pressure, the anxiety?
The desire to not want to be different?
For that,
we reached out to doctor Scott Hoopes,
a Meridian psychiatrist who works with kids.
He told us elementary school
kids usually adopt the values and
points of views of their parents.
And wearing or not wearing a mask in
class will be more of an emotional thing
without a fully developed rational mind.
With adolescence you know that
middle to high school age.
There will be some of the same thing.
They tend to follow parents values,
but they can sometimes do their own thing.
And unfortunately as humans we tend to
divide quickly and easily into groups.
Those who agree with us and those that don't,
and those not like us.
Well,
we tend to be a little bit
less generous with them.
Our kids have been the focus of
these face covering confrontations,
but it's also put them smack
in the middle of it.
But the IT seems to me the bottom line
is it's going to create outgroup ingroup
that's going to create conflict and
tension with elementary school kids,
especially, it's going to be very
emotionally based adolescents.
You're going to add some rationality to it,
but let's be fair.
We adults aren't being very
rational about this either.
This conflict thing. I mean,
in addition to all the other stuff that
you have to deal with in middle school
and whatever that can't be good to
add another whole layer
of stuff well exactly,
and so for the elementary school kids.
It's it's defending my parents
and my family, my people right?
And again, how can that not be emotional?
And that's that's,
that's that's that division
between kids is not going to be
acted out in a happy way quite
often. How much of this conflict between
you know masks, no masks, vaccinated,
not, vaccinated that their parents?
Dealing with the trickling down into the
kids. Well, well, very largely.
That's the point, and it's just,
you know, it's bombarded in the media.
How could you look at any media without
being exposed to something like this?
And then it's hard for parents not to
be caught up with it with child age
children because one of the most powerful
impulses inclinations we have as human
beings is protecting our children.
And then of course,
what are you protecting him against?
Are you protecting him against the tyrants?
In government that want to
dictate every action or are you?
Are you protecting them against
the reckless people who want you
to get to a disease and drop dead?
Well, you know those are those are
those are fundamental kind of value
things that we as adults are struggling
with. So none of this is really
shaping up to be a solid, nurturing
atmosphere for kids. I'm guessing.
No, no, no, not and again with kids.
It's up to us as adults to lead
them out to show them away.
In all of human history so far,
when there has been crises.
People have found a way out and
often that way out has been
constructive and positive.
At this point,
we're struggling with that right
and and there's a lot of forces
that are polarizing us as a
society that children have an
adolescence they simply don't have
the tools to deal with it all.
Well, ask doctor Hoops.
So he suggests that parents.
Talk to the kids about situations like
this when they go into the classroom
and see that they're not wearing a mat
or the others are not wearing the mask,
but they are and all that kind of
stuff and he basically said it's kind
of like that in Group and out group.
You have to find that common ground
you got to talk to each other,
but you also have to be generous
with each other and there's no
real easy answer to this.
Other than trying not to put that
pressure that you're feeling with
this whole situation onto your kids.