The Missoula County Public School Board of Trustees met last night to make decisions regarding mask mandates including the terms required to be fulfilled before the school board will allow children to be unmasked. The “COVID-19 Task Force” subcommittee, appointed by the board of the trustees, recommends lifting the mask mandate after the following requirements are met by parents and students:

• COVID vaccine is widely available and time has been given to reach immunity for 5 to 11-year olds
• The incident rate is less than or equal to 20 for three consecutive weeks
• MCPS records less than or equal to 30 total cases per week for three consecutive weeks
• The number of close contacts within MCPS is less than or equal to 175 for three consecutive weeks

Despite Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland restricting the use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine due to the risk of heart inflammation in young boys, the school board subcommittee will not recommend removing the mask mandates until vaccines are available to children and until children 5 to 11-years old reach “immunity.”

The subcommittee also cited rising hospitalizations as a reason for recommending that mask mandates continue to be enforced.

According to school data from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Missoula area schools have seen a total of 24 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began nearly two years ago. Out of 41 schools and 13,887 students, that represents 0.17% infection rate.

According to recent death and hospitalization data from DPHHS, Missoula County has had 138 deaths from a total of 14,942 cases since the pandemic began. 138 deaths represents a case-fatality rate of 0.9%—less than one percent. That figure is likely lower with officials pointing to positive cases of COVID-19 that are not tracked by tests.

Among the estimated 119,600 people in the county, 138 deaths also represents a 0.11% chance of dying with COVID-19. DPHHS demographic data also shows 72% of deaths with COVID-19 in Montana have been in individuals aged 70 and above and 88% in those 60 and above. State data also shows zero deaths with COVID-19 in people in K-12 age groups.

With early treatment, odds are even better. The Western Montana Liberty Coalition, a Missoula-based grassroots community organization, has put together a COVID-19 treatment page listing local pharmacies that will fill physician prescriptions for ivermectin and links to early treatment protocols including the I-MASK+ Prevention Protocol.