Coalition of scientists, pediatric infectious disease & mental health experts issue open letter to White House & CDC

For Immediate Release

Letter asks for a paradigm shift when dealing with children and COVID-19

Letter sent to Dr. Ashish Jha & Dr. Rochelle Walensky

(Nationwide) — Today, a group of scientists and pediatric, infectious disease, emergency, mental health and ICU physicians, increasingly concerned that COVID-19 mitigation measures continue to disrupt children’s lives with testing, isolation and vaccine mandates, issued an open letter to the White House and CDC.

“We have written this letter because the lives of children and their families continue to be disrupted by unnecessary COVID-19 testing, isolation, and vaccine requirements. With high levels of both vaccination and infection-acquired immunity, it is time to lift the COVID-19 mitigation measures that are preventing our children from unconditionally participating in school, camps, and sports,” said co-author Dr. Eliza Holland, a pediatric hospitalist in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The letter emphasizes that CDC’s COVID-19 guidelines for children do more harm than good and continue to cause significant disruption to children’s education and to working parents, while providing no demonstrable public health benefit in limiting spread. Currently, nearly all U.S. adults and children are protected by either vaccination or infection-acquired immunity, and the U.S. is seeing far lower hospitalization and mortality rates than in prior surges. CDC policies have serious unintended consequences–-such as school closures, increased school absences, forcing parents to miss work, and the expense and time of testing.

Co-author Dr. Jeanne Noble, Director of COVID Response for UCSF, explains that, “This letter is necessary because our COVID-19 policies have failed to be updated, as promised. As a frontline health care provider, I witnessed the transition of COVID-19 from an unpreventable and nearly untreatable disease to a manageable, and typically mild, viral infection. Yet children, who are least threatened by COVID-19, continue to shoulder the most harmful restrictions, with testing and isolation recommendations causing ongoing learning loss and vaccine mandates that limit social opportunities. It is critical that our nation's public health leaders retire COVID mitigation policies that are barriers to a full restoration of childhood.”

“It is time to restore confidence in our public health agencies by following the science,” added Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Dr. Nicole Johnson. “We call on the CDC to make masking and vaccination optional for all, and to only recommend testing for the purpose of treating. It is urgent that our children return to normal now.”

The group has previously released two advocacy toolkits entitled “Children, COVID and the Urgency of Normal,” and “The Under 5’s Toolkit,” both available at www.urgencyofnormal.com.

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