Summer Camps Should Reopen Without Masks

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, this year, due to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines restricting outdoor activities, many children will be stuck inside when they should be outdoors in the sunlight playing, learning new skills, making friends, and enjoying their childhoods. This is not only important for their mental health but also their physical health and enhancing their immune system.

And it is even more critically important in those States which have still not reopened their schools fully to in-person learning, despite all scientific evidence to the contrary.

Yesterday, The New York Times reported that the CDC had hugely exaggerated their guidelines by saying that less than 10 percent of COVID-19 transmission occurs outdoors, and that the actual estimate of outdoor transmission is somewhere between 0.1 percent to 1 percent.

This misleading guidance from the CDC has led to confusion, increased hesitancy to view outdoor activities as safe, and many summer camps have been forced to close their doors again for yet another year.

We have known for quite some time that the risk of transmitting COVID-19 outdoors is exceedingly small. In Iowa, there was not a requirement to wear masks outdoors, even though physical separation and maintaining small group size was encouraged.

Due to shelter-at-home orders, the numbers of cases of youth depression, anxiety, attempted suicides, suicides, increased drug use, and hospitalizations have continued to increase, despite the overall decrease in new COVID cases, hospitalizations, and mortality rates.

A staggering report from the CDC found that from March to October of 2020, mental health emergency department visits from adolescents had increased 31 percent from the same time in 2019.

With the good news related to rapidly approaching community immunity from the pandemic and the relaxing of a number of protocols and controls, the CDC's newly released guidelines for summer camps is both overly cautious, rigid, and unscientific.

Many of us have fond memories of spending time with friends and family, including a week at summer camp. Summer camps are a staple of childhood and adolescence.

More than 6 million children attend the day and overnight summer camps in any given year. Denying children their ability to attend these camps and the opportunity to make a friend, learn independence, life skills, learn teamwork, build self-esteem, and continue their education beyond the school year is atrocious.

With over 12,000 summer camps across the country, there are plenty of opportunities for our children to grow, learn, and play.

Iowa is home to several great camps, including Forest Lake Baptist Camp in my home county; Hertko Hollow, a camp for children with diabetes; and Camp Courageous, a camp specifically for children with disabilities.

Summer camps also provide employment for over 1.5 million Americans every year. This represents a great opportunity for high school students and adults to have great experiences outdoors while earning an income.

As a doctor, former president of the Iowa Medical Society, and former director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, I have addressed the severity of COVID-19 and have been a strong and consistent advocate for all three of the safe and effective vaccines developed through Operation Warp Speed, and, in fact, just finished attending and administering vaccines at clinics in all 24 counties in my district.

Just a few days ago, the Pfizer vaccine was given emergency use authorization to be administered to children 12 to 15 years old. It has been well-documented that children are at exceedingly low levels of risk for serious illness and that they do not transmit the virus.

COVID-19 deaths were 277 through the end of April. To put this in perspective, the CDC estimates around 600 children died of influenza in the 2017-2018 season; 358 died during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic; and each year, more than 700 children die from drowning.

We can see the light at the end of this pandemic tunnel, and as the number of Americans who are vaccinated continues to grow, coupled with those who have natural immunity from having the disease, I expect to see a return to normalcy and a return to pre-pandemic life. A return to normal includes allowing our kids to be kids.

I am hopeful that we will be able to send our children to summer camp in the coming weeks so that they can have the experience and opportunities that they deserve.

Time is extraordinarily limited, and I implore the CDC to act now and allow summer camps to reopen to full activities without the wearing of masks.

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