MY COMMENTS, LEWISVILLE ISD BOARD MEETING 9/13

Thirty-six days later. School started. Minimal pandemic mitigation measures. Rising pediatric case numbers. I'm back with more warnings for the school board.

Last night marked my second appearance before the Lewisville ISD School Board to call for enhanced pandemic mitigation measures including a mask mandate. I have to commend not just the quality and passion of the other parents who spoke in favor of improving the mitigation measures in the school district, but also the many parents who showed up with signs to support those speaking before the board.

Here is the text of my remarks (with slight changes in what I actually said) last night:

I am the father of 2 LISD graduates and 2 current LISD students, one of whom is too young to be vaccinated. I have devoted nearly 25 years to preventive medicine, primary care, and medical education.

I stood here a month ago warning of the threat posed by the Delta variant.

Let’s review what’s transpired since then.

Since the start of school, the seven day rolling average of pediatric COVID cases in Denton County has doubled.

1 in 7 children will go on to develop impacts from COVID infection beyond six months. This is a multisystem virus attacking  neuro-cognitive function, kidney function and cardiac function.

The cost of COVID in children is not just in hospitalizations or deaths but in long term sequealae. I have already seen college pre-participation physical forms asking about COVID infection history in prospective student athletes and if they have had an evaluation by a cardiologist.

The Delta variant has a reproduction number of 5-9, meaning one case can infect 5 to 9 others.

Someone infected with the Delta variant is highly contagious days BEFORE the development of symptoms. Wearing a mask is not about protecting yourself, it is about protecting those around you if you are in the incubation phase of infection. Your mask protects me, my mask protects YOU.

Published, peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown mask mandates act as a protective blanket for the community.

In all of Denton County we only have 1 available ICU bed and 70 available hospital beds. Our medical resources are under severe strain.

The pediatric hospitalization rate for COVID is only 1% but what is 1% of nearly 400 new cases in this district each week? That is a risk of having as many as 4 hospitalized students a week.

Every major medical and scientific governing body has recommended with urgency the need for universal mask use in our schools.

This school board's own code of ethics  under "Honor in Conduct" states:

"I will base my decisions on fact rather than supposition, opinion, or public favor."

So I ask not just as concerned parent but as a physician why we are not acting based on the facts?

I am honored and humbled to be in the company of parents who follow the science and medicine necessary to navigate our way out of this pandemic. We will not be bullied or intimidated by false premises of individual liberty and personal responsibility. We will not be swayed by misconceptions of what freedom means.

Freedom without responsibilities and obligations is merely the outburst of a petulant spoiled child.

To quote one of the other physicians who spoke out last night:

"We are people of a civilized society who are responsible for the health of each other. That's how society works. We take care of each other."