Philadelphia orders students to mask up from Jan 3 to January 13 due to future spike in cases.

Is the Superintendent of Education reading the entrails of goats? How does he know what the future will bring?

I checked out Reuters and the NY Times to see if I could predict the spike too.

• How did the Superintendent know on December 14 that there would be a spike in cases after the new year, and that it will last exactly 11 days, from Jan 3 through Jan 13?

• How does he know that the masks the kids are sent to school with reduce infection? He doesn’t.

• How does s/he know it won’t impair the kids’ education. He must know the opposite is true by now.

• The Superintendent is calling it a “proactive measure.”

• We know this is about making sure the public understands that those invoking “public health” are in charge, the masks will never completely go away, and regardless of any net gain or loss for the children (or the teachers) you will do what we say.

• Philadelphia was one of the US cities where the local health officer ordered vaccinations of kids aged 12 and up without parental consent.

• Last winter Rochelle Walensky warned, in the WaPo, that the masks could come back if cases rose…

Here is what the NY Times shows. Do you see a spike?

Below is a chart from STAT updated to December 18 for cases and deaths. Do you see a spike?