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Top Doc Urges COVID-Concerned Parents to Send Kids to School in Masks

A student gets a temperature check before heading into school in August 2020.
Dan Gaken @DGaken
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Creative Commons/flickr via https://www.flickr.com/photos/dgaken/
A student's temperature is checked before entering school in August 2020.

COVID cases continue to climb in Ohio, and many school districts have mandated students and teachers wear masks inside buildings, including the state’s largest districts. But what about those districts that have not done that?

The Ohio Department of Health’s incoming director explains parents should have their children wear masks anyway.

new Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff
Jo Ingles
/
Statehouse News Bureau
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, who has recently been named director of the Ohio Department of Health says even if schools aren't mandating that students wear face masks, students should wear them anyway.

Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff says kids old enough to be vaccinated should be. Younger kids, he says, should wear masks, even if they are not required in their schools.

“There are, in fact, studies of masking that have looked at, ‘Do masks protect the wearer even if an infected patient is not, in fact, themselves wearing a mask?’ And the answer is yes, they do provide substantial protection,” Vanderhoff said.

Two Republican lawmakers are working on bills to ban schools from requiring masks.

Gov. Mike DeWine says there’s no appetite for a statewide mask mandate, and a new state law would allow lawmakers to vote it down if he ordered one.