Unvaccinated, unmasked teacher infected more than half of students in class with Covid-19, CDC reports

An unvaccinated elementary school teacher who took off their mask to read to students ended up infecting more than half of them last May — and they went on to infect other students, family members and community members, California public health officials reported Friday.

It’s a prime example of how easy it is to undermine efforts to protect children too young to be vaccinated, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.

The teacher came to work even though they had Covid-19 symptoms and then took off their mask to read to the young students, a team at Marin County Public Health reported in the CDC’s weekly report on death and disease.

The teacher assumed the symptoms indicated allergies, not infection, the investigators found.
In the classroom of 22 students, 12 became infected — including eight out of 10 students in the two front rows.

And that’s despite layers of measures intended to prevent transmission of the virus.

“The school required teachers and students to mask while indoors; interviews with parents of infected students suggested that students’ adherence to masking and distancing guidelines in line with CDC recommendations was high in class. However, the teacher was reportedly unmasked on occasions when reading aloud in class,” the report read.