A Florida appellate court on Wednesday tossed a challenge to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ prohibition on mask mandates in schools.
The Third District Court of Appeals ruled that the Miami-Dade County School Board’s case against the ban was rendered moot because the original rule was repealed last month.
DeSantis’ new state surgeon general, De. Joseph Lapado issued a new rule. Now, not only are school districts forbidden to impose mask mandates, the new rule empowers parents, and not schools, to determine if a child who has been exposed to COVID-19 must be quarantined.
Miami-Dade is challenging that as well.
But the appellate court’s decision arrives as new data shows Florida has turned a corner on COVID, even as DeSantis rejected the desires of those who demand mask mandates, lockdowns, and more intense restrictions.
According to data released by DeSantis’ office Florida has the second-lowest rate of virus infection in the country, at just 27 per 100,000 people. On Tuesday, the state reported the fewest number of new infections in three months.
Since Aug. 25 peak, the number of new infections has plummeted by 96 percent, and under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, the Sunshine State’s 4.8 percent positivity rate for the past week means the state must now be considered “low transmission.
Additionally, only 8.5 percent of inpatient hospital beds are occupied by COVID patients, which is below the national average, 9.7 percent.
DeSantis’ office also pointed out that among children, the people at the heart of the war over mask mandates, schools that adopted mandates are not performing better than schools that didn’t.
In the 54 counties that did not enact masking requirements, new COVID cases for children between 5 and 17 are down 79 percent on average, while the positivity rate in those counties has dropped 65 percent between the start of school and Sept. 30.
On the other hand, the13 counties that enforce mandates in violation of state law report that new infections have declined 77 percent, while their positivity rate has decreased by 67 percent.
“Once again, reality has directly contradicted the dire predictions of lockdown and mandate advocates, who insisted that opening schools without mask mandates would cause an explosion of infections,” DeSantis’ office said in a statement.
“The data for this school year to date shows no impact of forced masking in schools,” the comment continued. “This is not surprising, since there were no statistically significant differences in case rates in forced-masking versus mask-optional schools during the 2020-21 school year in Florida.”
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And what about the science that human beings were created to inhale O2 NOT rebreathe CO2 for hours?? What effect does inhaling CO2 have on anyone, ESPECIALLY a growing chikd?? Where is the study about how safe THAT is??