Another Year, Another Round of School Mask Mandate Lawsuits
About a month into the school year, U.S. children are settling into their classrooms and starting to wear down the nibs of their new crayons and colored pencils. Meanwhile, in courtrooms around the country, lawsuits over rules requiring those children to wear masks are grinding through the legal process.
In one Tennessee lawsuit, filed Sept. 22, a group of parents called their children's school mask mandate a “whole school clinical experimental trial,” reports my colleague Katie Reilly. Another in Pennsylvania claimed children “are anxious and depressed at the thought of once again being forced to wear masks.” In Massachusetts, where there are at least six such lawsuits, one alleges that wearing masks causes children “significant psychological harm.”
Court battles are coming from the other side as well; for example, in South Carolina, parents have sued the state over bans on school mask mandates. Their argument is that prohibiting schools from requiring masks discriminates against students with weakened immune systems and underlying medical conditions, since a lack of masking means many of those children could be forced to stay home and participate in online lessons.
“A few of the experts I spoke with made an interesting comparison between mask mandates and policies that prohibit peanut butter in classrooms,” Katie told me. She’s been covering school masking debates since the start of the pandemic last year. “Not all kids are allergic to peanuts—just as not all kids are as likely to become seriously ill from COVID-19—but schools have still prohibited peanut butter in some classrooms to accommodate those kids and make sure they stay safe. Parents of children with disabilities are making a similar argument here about face masks.”
Those arguments draw on statutes like the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates that disabled students can’t be excluded from schools. Earlier this week, a South Carolina federal judge blocked a ban on school mask mandates. “No one can reasonably argue that it is an undue burden to wear a mask to accommodate a child with disabilities,” U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis wrote in her decision.
Similar disability rights arguments are playing out in Texas, and Katie says pro-masking parents have a good chance of success. “These federal laws clearly outline the rights of students with disabilities and prohibit them from being excluded from public schools,” she says. “Legal experts say there's a compelling argument to be made that when masks aren't required, the school environment isn't safe for children who are medically vulnerable.”
More than 474.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this morning, of which nearly 393 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 55.6% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
More than 233.7 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 2 a.m. E.T. today, and nearly 4.8 million people have died. On September 30, there were 457,778 new cases and 8,482 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 4.5 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded almost 43.5 million coronavirus cases as of 2 a.m. E.T. today. More than 697,000 people have died. On September 30, there were 110,060 new cases and 2,718 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Oct. 1, 2 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Merck’s antiviral pill cuts COVID-19 patients’ risk of hospitalization and death in half, my colleague Alice Park reports. The drug, called molnupiravir, is the first coronavirus antiviral medication that can be taken orally instead of injected through an IV, like Gilead’s remdesivir. Merck will soon apply for emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
California plans to require COVID-19 vaccination to attend school, starting as early as next fall, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced today. It's the first statewide vaccine mandate for schoolchildren in grades K-12. The new requirements will go into effect after the FDA fully approves the vaccine, and will apply to any student who wants to attend classes in person.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh has tested positive for COVID-19, the U.S. Supreme Court announced today. Kavanaugh is fully vaccinated and reportedly isn’t experiencing any symptoms. The diagnosis means he didn't his attend his colleague Justice Amy Coney Barrett's swearing-in ceremony today.
Regulators deciding who should receive Moderna and J&J booster shots might not have much data to go on, reports Axios. In making a decision on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine booster, U.S. regulators relied heavily on data from Israel. But there’s no equivalent data source for the Moderna and J&J shots.
In Germany, the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Saarland dropped many of their remaining rules around masking, occupancy limits and nightclub closures, according to German broadcaster DW. The loosened restrictions follow low infection numbers in those regions, though there's concern that case counts could rise as the weather grows colder, forcing people to gather indoors.
Disney’s Broadway adaptation of “Aladdin” was forced to shut down performances on Sept. 29, just one day after the show opened, according to the New York Times. Several cast members, all of whom are required to be fully vaccinated, tested positive for COVID-19.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Alejandro de la Garza and edited by Angela Haupt.
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