North Carolina Experts Worry As Schools Don't Require Masks

Nearly two in five North Carolina K-12 public school districts are making masks optional for students and staff at the start of the new school year. North Carolina experts who released a frequently cited report showing minimal COVID-19 transmission within K-12 schools are warning of increased learning loss as a result of local school boards’ decisions to defy public health recommendations. COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and test positivity rates are at their worst levels in months. Kids under 12 can’t yet get vaccinated and many eligible young adults are unvaccinated. But 38% of North Carolina’s 116 school boards will allow them to be unmasked. One researcher called this a form of “experimentation.”