With the Covid-19 vaccine rolling out, the big question is: how long will it take to get back to normal? At the top of the list, how long will masks be necessary? The people  need to know this because if they want to get back to school and work they have to know if they need to wear masks.

Brooke Bilowz, ‘26, said “ I think that we will need to wear masks for a couple more months. Even if the vaccine is out it won’t be given to all of the United States for a couple months so we are going to need to wear the masks to stop the spread of the Covid- 19.” 

Mr. Canter, a science teacher at NRMS, answered a question regarding continuing to wear masks with “ Yes, yes, yes!  At the current vaccination rate, we will be vaccinating people until about summer 2022.  The vaccine prevents you from getting Covid, but you may still spread it to another person even after you get the vaccine.  That information is not fully understood at this time.  It will take a minimum of 70% of the population to get vaccinated to build herd immunity and even be able to intelligently have this discussion.” 

Ms. Hartung, NRMS school nurse, addressed the approval process for pediatric vaccines, “There are trials going on now to determine safety of the vaccine in the pediatric population.  They will start with older children 16+ and work their way down to younger kids and babies.” The pediatric vaccine’s implementation will affect school going back to normal.

All of those factors will determine how long we’ll be wearing masks in school. Kolina Winlow, ‘27, said,” I am pretty certain that we will be wearing masks for all of this school year. Hopefully most teachers can get the vaccine soon so then next year parents will be alright with letting kids come back to school without masks next year.”

People should be wearing masks when we get back to school. Not only scientists know this, but the public does too. A seventh grade student said, “ I think that we will need to wear masks for a couple more months.” People will never know for sure, until they have the facts, and that is what the future brings.