COVID-19 cases are expected to rise this fall as new variants become more prevalent. And, as unfortunately expected, it’s already triggered demands by some of our more zealous public health enforcers, not to mention some teachers’ unions, to reinstate mitigation measures including mandatory masking.
Some researchers are already recommending that when cases go up, people will need to wear masks indoors again.
Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, author of the widely read newsletter “Your Local Epidemiologist,” predicts COVID-19 “is going to be disruptive this winter, and it will cause a number of people to die,” and added, “That’s just not acceptable to the public health world, especially since it’s preventable.” In a recent “PBS Newshour” interview, she suggested “wearing masks in crowded areas, especially during a surge” and “certainly at home, it works, if you want to reduce household transmission.”
About 100 colleges and universities still require students to be vaccinated. A smaller number of schools including Rutgers, Georgetown, and Morris Brown College in Atlanta have reinstated mask mandates on campus
