White House: Students and teachers should follow CDC guidelines on mask-wearing, regardless of state rules

White House press secretary Jen Psaki urged students, teachers and parents on Wednesday to follow federal guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when making decisions about mask-wearing in schools, not just local state rules. 

When asked by CNN’s MJ Lee whether students and teachers should follow CDC guidance even if their states do not require masks in those settings, Psaki said “yes.”  

The CDC currently recommends “universal indoor masking by students, staff members, faculty, and visitors” in K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.

Psaki also made a point to note the difference between state leaders who are permitting local school districts to make their own decisions and those are penalizing them for wearing masks.

Earlier today, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said masks are recommended in areas of high and substantial transmission. “That’s much of the public right now,” she said, also adding that the agency is working to update its guidance on mask-wearing.

When asked by CNN why it has been nearly a month since President Biden has addressed Americans in a public speech, Psaki pointed to the President’s recent news conference where he took questions on the pandemic. 

“The American people can expect to continue to hear from the President on it,” Psaki said. 

Weeks after signing an order aimed at getting Utah state employees to work in school classrooms as substitute teachers amid a wave of absenteeism due to the Omicron coronavirus variant, Gov. Spencer Cox was seen doing just that Tuesday afternoon.  

“Substitute teaching 3 periods of 8th grade history today. Pray for me…😅” the governor jokingly said in a tweet.   

Cox spent his teaching hours at West Lake STEM Junior High School in the Granite School District, according to a news release from his office.  

Cox isn’t the only governor to help out in the classroom.  

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed up to be a substitute teacher last month too after signing a similar order, CNN previously reported. 

Nearly a dozen health officers in California’s Bay Area will lift universal mask requirements for most indoor settings, starting next Wednesday, according to a joint news release from the San Mateo County manager’s office.

The city of Berkeley and counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma will only require masks for anyone who is unvaccinated and over age 2, according to the release. 

State health officials announced Monday that the state indoor mask mandate will expire on Feb. 15. 

Masking is still required for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, on public transportation, congregate settings, long-term care facilities, childcare settings and K-12 schools. 

Local health departments can relax their mask mandates in accordance with the state or keep stricter guidelines.

Similarly, the Golden State’s most populous county, Los Angeles, will change mask requirements for indoor spaces when transmission is under 50 cases per 100,000 people, or when vaccines are available for at least eight weeks for children age under age 5. Either of those two guidelines along with no reports of significant circulation of new variants will prompt a requirement change. The “post-surge” threshold for the county is triggered when daily hospitalizations drop below 2,500 for seven consecutive days. Once that happens, masks will no longer be required at outdoor spaces including mega events, childcare facilities and K-12 schools. 

The state has not yet announced any changes to masking guidance for schools but said adjustments to policies will be shared in the next few weeks.

Truck drivers are finding alternate routes along the US border with Canada as protests against Canada’s Covid-19 regulations continue for a second week. 

“They’re avoiding the interstate and bridges and actually coming through the backroads to get closer to the bridge,” James Freed, city manager for Port Huron, Mich., told CNN.

The Ambassador Bridge, which links Detroit and Windsor, Canada, remains closed to traffic on the US side.

James Lake, Michigan Department of Transportation’s north region communications representative, said that “traffic is not currently moving into Canada,” as the “I-75 exit ramps to Canada are currently closed.” 

The Canada Border Services Agency reported wait times of more than four hours Wednesday morning at the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron.  

“The problem is we’re a smaller Midwestern community,” Freed said. “We were never designed to have thousands of truckers showing up to our city all at once. So it’s significant congestion blocking up our downtown.” 

Freed said the truckers in his community are not protesters. 

“These are truck drivers who are legitimately trying to traverse the border, supply our factories and continue with commerce,” he said.

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Scotland Yard said on Wednesday that it is reviewing its assessment that a Christmas quiz at Downing Street on Dec. 15, 2020 did not meet the threshold for criminal investigation after an image surfaced of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson near a bottle of champagne, according to a statement from the Metropolitan Police. 

The news comes after a new photo emerged on Wednesday, published by The Mirror, seemingly showing Johnson gathering with others in an office setting, with a bottle of champagne, while the country was under a strict lockdown. 

The gathering was not included in the list of events published on Jan. 31 as being investigated by the police, but it was mentioned by senior civil servant Sue Gray in her findings to the Downing Street inquiry. 

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement Wednesday: “The MPS previously assessed this event and determined that on the basis of the evidence available at that time, it did not meet the threshold for criminal investigation. That assessment is now being reviewed.” 

On Jan. 25, the police announced it was investigating a “number of events” that took place at Downing Street and Whitehall in the last two years in relation to potential coronavirus regulation breaches. 

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) spokesperson said the US-Canada border at Coutts, Alberta, remains inaccessible after truckers moved additional vehicles to block the highway on Tuesday evening.

The protesters in Coutts are part of a group of truckers across Canada that have successfully blocked major border crossings in protest of Canada’s mandate requiring that trucker drivers be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or face strict testing and quarantine requirements.

Fraser Logan, spokesperson for the RCMP in Alberta, said that vehicles were moved onto Highway 4, completely blocking access to the border, around 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

In a Tuesday evening press conference, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki had touted the dwindling number of truckers present at the protests as progress towards breaking the blockade. He said that was through successful conversations with the protesters over the almost two-week-long blockade.  

Part of the success, Zablocki said, was convincing truckers to allow a lane of traffic to open in either direction towards the border.

Logan did not have any information as to what may have led the truckers to bring in the additional vehicles and completely shut down roadway access. However, Logan did confirm that the RCMP in Alberta is continuing to talk to towing companies about moving the trucks.

According to Department of Transportation statistics, roughly 150,000 trucks pass through the Sweet Grass-Coutts border crossing each year. The nearest border crossing to the east adds about two hours of travel to a trip; the nearest border crossing to the west adds about an hour travel to a trip. 

Zablocki said the protests started in Coutts 12 days ago with over 250 truckers, but as of Tuesday evening, that number has dwindled to around 50.  

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul acknowledged there is a possibility that mask mandates in school may be lifted in the second week of March.

She was asked at her Covid-19 briefing Wednesday if she envisions schools lifting mask mandates by March 7 if metrics stay basically where they are now — and there is “barely” any uptick by March 4. Hochul said:

The governor added she wants to make sure there is thoughtful guidance on “what could re-trigger the institution of this again,” adding “hopefully, never again but we have to be realistic; this has not been declared over, this pandemic is still with us.”

When asked about the varying decisions on school masks from leaders in the tri-state area — the New Jersey and Connecticut governors — Hochul said “we’re very close” in terms of their various approaches. Hochul maintained the state will continue to make data-driven, metric-driven decisions. 

The Denver Department of Public Health & Environment announced Wednesday it will lift its mask mandate in schools and childcare facilities on Feb. 25 at 11:59 p.m. MT. 

The department cited “a significant drop in COVID-19 cases in Denver and the metro area” as well as high vaccination rates among children ages 5 and older.    

The city’s indoor face covering order expired last week, CNN previously reported.

The department said it plans to announce more information on quarantine and isolation guidelines later this week as well.

People should not delay getting a mammogram due to a recent Covid-19 vaccination, according to a new study.

Mammograms picking up swollen lymph nodes, also known as lymphadenopathy, after vaccination is common, according to a study in the journal Radiology published Tuesday. Swollen lymph nodes following a vaccination are a short-term, harmless sign the vaccine is working.

The swollen lymph nodes were noticed after Covid-19 vaccines were rolled out, but they can occur after other vaccinations too, such as a flu shot or shingles vaccine. Some doctors suggested that women who recently got vaccinated and had swollen lymph nodes may want to wait a few weeks before getting a mammogram, while others said it’s important not to skip or delay mammograms or vaccinations.

In the study, 537 of the 1,217 patients that received Covid-19 vaccination and underwent breast imaging had lymphadenopathy. The swollen lymph nodes were found in 46% of the patients that received the Moderna vaccine, 38% of those that took the Pfizer vaccine and 39% of those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.  

The swollen lymph nodes were most commonly seen in the first two weeks after vaccination, but can persist much longer.

“I was surprised by how quickly the lymph nodes became swollen and how long they persisted after being detected on routine screening mammogram and screening ultrasound exams,” Wolfson said. “We found benign reactive lymph nodes were still present despite delaying the screening exams for four to six weeks based on various guidelines. These lymph nodes were unchanged with follow up exams at three months, and some enlarged lymph nodes persisted for over 10 months.” 

Wolfson said follow up imaging in patients with swollen lymph nodes is not recommended unless there are other suspicious mammographic findings.