Yet again, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is letting the state of American health down.

Yes, I know, we Americans are fed up with the coronavirus epidemic.  But, the vast infectivity (albeit at must less virulent levels) of the omicron.BA5 variants have left many of us vulnerable to COVID-19.

It’s why to this date, I still won’t eat inside of a restaurant, unless I can verify that they have upgraded their air handling to ensure a reasonable modicum of safety.  After all, I can’t keep my mask on and eat.  They are simply incompatible activities.

But, I really worry about our kids in schools.  Lets start with the simplest issue. Only 10.9% of those between the ages of 5 and 11 are inoculated against COVID-19.  The numbers basically double (27.6%) for those 12 to 12- but they are still not extensive enough.  But, the vaccination rate for those kids going to day care and kindergarten is below 3%!   Vaccines are our only key to normalcy!

The other key, as I mentioned above, is improved air quality.  The new norm (we had dropped this standard as an energy saver years ago) is to effect a minimum of 4 exchanges per hour; 6 is better.  Filtration (MERV [minimum efficiency reporting value] of 13 and ultraviolet irradiation of the air improve the results dramatically.  Yet most schools barely achieve 3 exchanges an hour, with the average closer to 1.5  (By the way the lowered standard for air exchanges adopted to save energy was 2 per hour- so these schools have been failing safety needs for a while.)

These results exist despite the billions ($190 billion for ventilation assistance alone) in funding provided schools since the pandemic began.  Moreover, there is data that higher air exchanges actually improve academic performance (since the kids are more energetic with the better air quality).  The GAO (2020 report) has identified some 36000 schools with deficient HVAC systems; only 40% of all schools have upgraded their air-handling since the start of the pandemic.

Instead, schools squandered those funds by buying sanitizing supplies and PPE (personal protective equipment.)   They also did not have staff on board that were qualified to understand the technology behind the better air treatment systems.  As such, they bought deficient systems or ran into supply chain issues, when purchasing the higher end systems.

I fear this bodes ill for the coming new school year.   Especially since many systems will resist the requirement for children to mask up.

Caveat emptor.

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