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Fmr. CDC Dir. Dr. Robert Redfield Acknowledges Lack of CDC Data to Support Universal School Masking Recommendation

‘These policies should be grounded in data, as opposed to opinion’
By Grabien Staff

MACCALLUM: “Here’s Dr. Makary. He’s saying we don’t have the information. There’s no studies that have been done that tell us about whether or not kids should be masked. Are they actually safer when they’re masked in the school environment? And here’s what he had to say about that. I want to get your thoughts on the other side, if I may.”

[Clip starts]

MAKARY: ‘The CDC guideline was pretty stern and with zero data. There’s only one inconclusive study out there on masks and kids and no study funded by the NIH’s $42 billion a year budget. Yet we had a very vigorous recommendation that all kids K-12 should be wearing a mask regardless of their vaccination status.”

[Clip ends]

MACCALLUM: “So has there been any CDC study that backs up what they have now proclaimed, that kids should be wearing masks in school? And if not, why haven’t they spent the money on that study, Doctor?”

REDFIELD: “I think it’s really important. You raise it. These policies should be grounded in data as opposed to opinion. I think your guest raises a very important part. There’s been very few studies that really are compelling in that setting of the classroom. We did a number of studies when I was there just in fixed settings and recognized that if you aerosolized virus through a mask, and then the recipient had a mask, and these were all dummies in rooms that were ventilated to a different degree, you could have an impact on the amount of virus that went from one to another. But that’s not to say in a real life scenario that that’s efficacious in the classroom. One of the things that I think is really important in the classroom, for example, is how to identify the silent epidemic. This is why we recommended in a number of jurisdictions that are doing this to do routine testing of all the students twice a week so they can find out who is asymptomatically infected and who isn’t and get them out of the transmission cycle. So I think there is a paucity of data.”

MACCALLUM: “When you look at what the CDC has recommended now, they’re basically saying everybody should be masked, right? And we talked about the fact that there had been no study that would back that up. So the question is — and you say you did some studies then but you did them with dummies. Where have they been for the past — ever since then? What’s been going on for the past nine, ten months? Why Don’t We have data rather than, as you say, just opinion that’s leading this push with our schools?”

REDFIELD: “I think it’s a fair criticism. A fair criticism. You heard, I think in The Wall Street Journal they talked about $42 billion of NIH funding and less than two percent was on Covid. These are critical questions. Is routine screening twice a week in a school, is that the real way to limit intraschool transmission? Is it wearing masks or not wearing masks? I’m of the point of view this has to be locally decided as opposed to a general mandate. Particularly in the absence of data. But you know I’ve said before, I do believe that masks are better than having received a vaccine that didn’t work in you. But that’s not to say that I’m convinced that we can make the statements that the best way to protect kids in school is, as some have advocated, universal masking. I think maybe better ventilation, maybe better desanitation. Maybe routine testing twice a week to identify silent epidemic. Maybe reinforcing in parents that they don’t send their kids to school if they’re sick and they don’t send them to school if their siblings are sick.”

MACCALLUM: “So do you think the current CDC rule that all kids should wear masks, you’re saying that the current CDC is wrong on this issue?”

REDFIELD: “I’m saying that I haven’t been able to review data that supports that recommendation.”

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