According to a fact check from Kaiser Health News / PolitiFact, the claim that it is time to return to normal is false.

‘This is what science says to all who are honest about it: open schools, stop wearing masks outside, and everyone at low risk should lead normal lives. Not next fall or next year – now, ”reads the blog post that was posted on Facebook on February 8.

KHN-PolitiFact sent Sexton via its Facebook page to ask if he could provide evidence to substantiate the statement, but received no response.

Therefore, we reviewed the scientific evidence and talked to public health experts about Sexton’s message. In general, they disagree and note the ways in which it conflicts with current public health strategies.

Let’s take it point by point.

‘Open schools’

In March, when government and public health leaders realized that the new coronavirus was spreading across the US, many public institutions – including schools – were ordered to stop to prevent further spread. Large numbers of students have completed the 2020 spring semester remotely. Some jurisdictions have chosen to reopen schools in the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021, but others have remained remote.

During the pandemic, researchers studied whether personal learning at schools contributed significantly to the spread of COVID-19. The findings showed that if K-12 schools adhere to mitigation measures – masking, physical distance and regular hand washing – there is a relatively low risk of transmission.

Here are some of the latest research that follows with these positions:

• Only seven COVID-19 cases out of 191 were detected in the school distribution in 17 rural K-12 schools in Wisconsin with a high degree of mask wear and which were followed during the fall semester of 2020.
• Mississippi researchers found that most coronavirus in children and teens is associated with out-of-home gatherings and a lack of consistent mask use in schools, but not just attending school or childcare.
• Thirty-two cases were related to the schooling of 100,000 students and staff members in 11 schools in North Carolina, where students had to wear masks, physically distance themselves and regularly wash their hands.

Of course, there are some limitations to these studies, which often depend on contact detection, a process that may not always determine where the cases originated. Some of the studies also rely on self-care of wearing masks by individuals, which may be inaccurate.

In addition, Hassig pointed out that not all school districts have the means to safely open, such as high-quality physical space, staff or masks.

Sexton’s claim that schools can reopen leaves important information: that safe reopening is highly dependent on the use of mitigation measures that have shown that virus spread can be hampered.

‘Stop wearing masks outside’

Because the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is relatively new, research on the use of outdoor masks has been limited. But so far, science has shown that masks prevent virus transmission.

In Sexton’s post, however, it is recommended that people no longer wear masks. To be sure, public health experts agree that the risk of coronavirus transmission is lower than indoors. But the experts also said that does not mean that people should stop wearing masks.

In general, the prevailing scientific opinion is that while it may be good to go outside without a mask when you are physically far from others, but to wear a mask is still recommended if you are close to others.

‘Everyone at low risk should lead normal lives’

All the public health experts we have consulted agree that this part of the claim is absolutely false. It flies in the face of what scientists recommend to be done to get through the pandemic.

While it is unclear what exactly the message means with low-risk people, we must assume that it refers to younger people or people without health conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19. And that ‘living normal lives’ refers to not wearing more masks, taking physical distances or washing hands with more frequency.

Even if a person at low risk does not become seriously ill, they can still infect people in higher risk groups.

“Anyone now going back to ‘normal’, especially in the presence of more transmissible and deadly variants, would be a recipe for further public health disasters beyond what we have already experienced,” he added.

The push to return to normal is exactly what makes the new variants form and multiply, Vreeman said. “If in the meantime we can get people vaccinated and wear masks, we will only be ‘normal’ again.”

Due to the new variants that have been distributed in the USA, Walensky and dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged Americans not to slow down their efforts to control the spread of the virus.

A blog post by conservative talk show host Buck Sexton claims scientific evidence shows that at the moment we ‘need to’ open schools, stop wearing masks outside and that everyone at low risk should start living a normal life. ‘

Scientific research shows that risk mitigation measures need to be put in place to reopen schools safely, such as requiring masks, washing hands and limiting the number of students in classrooms. However, these changes would not be a return to normal, but a new normal for students and teachers.

The rest of Sexton’s statement deviates further from current science. Research indicates that you are safer outdoors than indoors, but public health experts still recommend wearing masks in public, even outdoors. Science does not support the idea that the time is right for some people to resume life normally. The experts said the virus could continue to spread and have a huge human cost in hospitalizations and deaths.

Sexton’s message is inaccurate. We judge it to be untrue.