To Mask or Not to Mask

To mask or not to mask … this is the question towns across the state are discussing after the recent press release by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, lifting the statewide school mask requirement as of February 28. As the chair of the Sharon Board of Health, I am in a tough position where I am being asked to take a leadership role in a decision making process that will inevitably leave some people very upset and frustrated with our decision. As I write this, I am genuinely torn between the desire to continue to protect the vulnerable members of our community and the competing interest to address the socioemotional and educational needs of the students.

As I have written before in the context of my practice as a shoulder surgeon, expert opinions are not facts. While one may find it disconcerting that the people making decisions are not always sure that they are making the right decisions, I would suggest that it is more disconcerting if they pretend to be sure in the face of certain uncertainty. Before I get into how I think we should be making this challenging decision about masking in the schools, let me just say very clearly that I do not think that there is an obviously correct choice in this matter.

So what do I think should factor into our decision making? I think there are the obvious factors like the reported data on testing, positive cases, hospitalizations, deaths, vaccination rates, and vaccine efficacy. The problem is that there is no amount of data that provides an objective measurement of what…