The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could ease coronavirus-related physical distance guidelines for personal learning from six feet to three “soon,” researchers told Fox News.
A researcher among those who recently wrote an opinion piece claiming that the CDC misinterpreted findings, including data on safe distance in the classroom, told Fox News an unnamed CDC employee expects a move in the leadership of the agency ‘soon’.
The unnamed CDC employee is involved in the reopening of the school and is eager to see how the CDC criteria change, according to dr. Monica Gandhi, Professor of Medicine and Co-Head of the Department of HIV, Infectious Diseases and World Medicine at the University of California. – San Francisco. Further confirmation of the expected shift in leadership comes from co-author Tracy Beth Hoeg, a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation and epidemiologist at the University of California-Davis and Sports Medicine at Orthopedic Associates in Northern California.
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When asked by CDC spokesman Jason McDonald about a possible shift in the distance guidelines, he said, “I have nothing at the moment.”
According to the researchers, there is enough scientific evidence to facilitate the CDC to facilitate the guidelines of schools up to three meters. Gandhi specifically cited a new article published Wednesday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, in which similar coronavirus cases were found in school districts three feet to six feet apart, among additional evidence that found minimal virus transmission in schools despite a significant prevalence of community diseases, where students sat less than six feet apart.
“I do not know when the weakening of the guidelines will take place, but I would like it to happen immediately,” Hoeg wrote.
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Action has already been taken at state level to shift guidelines. The Illinois Department of Public Health revised its definition of safe distance on March 10, spokeswoman Melaney Arnold confirmed to Fox News.
“Social distance for personal learning is now defined as 3 to 6 feet for students and fully vaccinated staff,” reads the IDPH website. “Maintaining 6 feet remains the safest distance, but schools can work at less than 3 feet to learn in person.”