The move comes more than a month after the Biden administration announced its school reopening guidelines on February 12. The CDC council recommended that schools “establish policies and implement structural interventions to promote physical distance of at least six feet” and that “cluster or cluster” can help to minimize exposure.
The agency was soon subjected to intense scrutiny by public health officials and scientists from around the country, who argued that it was safe for schools to keep one meter of physical distance to keep children safe. The dialogue was part of a broader conversation about how the agency’s guidelines included too many restrictions and would limit schools’ ability to reopen.
In a statement this week before the Chamber’s Energy and Commerce Supervision Subcommittee, CDC director Rochelle Walensky said the agency was looking at several other unpublished studies that supported reducing the recommended physical distance.
“As soon as our guidance was released, it became very clear that 6 feet was among the things that kept schools closed and, in that context, science evolves,” said Walensky.
The shift in physical distance measures raises questions about the health agency’s current thinking about how Covid-19 spreads and to what extent social distance plays a role in reducing transmission. The CDC currently recommends that all Americans stay 6 feet away from people who are not at home.
The CDC’s updated guidance would likely appease Republican lawmakers and other critics of the health agency’s school reopening structure, but the announcement generated a silent reaction from at least one major teacher union.
“While we hope that the CDC is right and these new studies will convince the community that the most enduring safety standard of this pandemic – the 6-foot rule – can be discarded if we all wear masks, we will reserve the judgment until we review them, ”Said the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten. “To date, the literature on reducing distance has been inconclusive at best and misleading at worst. Studies so far have often addressed distance in a vacuum, without measuring the effect of changes in other mitigation strategies, including masking. “
Friday’s announcement follows weeks of internal discussions within the CDC and among senior health officials in the Biden administration over whether there was sufficient evidence to support the change.
The CDC’s updated guidance cites three studies from the agency’s Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report that “build evidence that the physical distance of at least 3 feet between students can be safely adopted in classroom environments where wearing a mask it is universal and other preventive measures are taken “. according to a statement released by the agency.
All three studies showed that schools from kindergarten through 12th grade could safely reopen with appropriate mitigation strategies, but only one study specifically focused on distance between students. This survey, conducted in Salt Lake County, Utah at 20 primary schools over six weeks, found that primary schools could be reopened safely, with minimal transmission at school, if wearing a mask was universal – even when 6 feet of distance between students might not be maintained.
Two other studies released recently by the agency seem to reinforce the requirement of six feet among high school students. One of these studies looked at a high school in New Jersey with nearly 1,200 students. The tests identified 19 cases of Covid-19 in teachers and staff and eight cases in students between August and November 2020. But, according to the study, with “comprehensive prevention strategies”, including 6-foot spacing, outbreaks can be prevented. even when the virus is spreading in the wider community.
Another study conducted in Florida among high school football players, which showed that an outbreak of Covid-19 among team members resulted in a significant loss of days of personal learning for students infected with the virus and their contacts. “The dissemination among the team probably occurred during training and was caused by the infrequent use of a mask; inadequate physical distance and ventilation, ”said the study. “These findings reinforce why it is important for school sports teams to implement recommended CDC prevention strategies, including keeping students at least 6 feet away, wearing masks consistently during practice and testing players and team members” .
Senior CDC officials have also partly relied on a study in Massachusetts, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the subject. The research team found no substantial differences in the number of Covid-19 cases between students or staff in schools that implemented a three-foot physical distance policy, along with other health measures, such as wearing a universal mask.
“We are concerned that the CDC has changed one of the basic rules on how to ensure school security without demonstrating certainty that the change is justified by science and can be implemented in a way that does not lessen the greater long-term needs of students,” he said. the president of the National Education Association, Becky Pringle.
Michael Stratford and Juan Perez contributed to this report.