The Biden administration is prepping the space for the Centers for Disease Control to recommend masking in public schools as kids get ready to return to classrooms this fall:

As kids return to in-person schooling this fall, those under 12 years old will “probably” be required to wear face coverings, President Joe Biden said…during a town hall event hosted by CNN.

“The CDC is going to say that what you should do is, everyone under the age of 12 should probably be wearing masks in school,” Biden said during the event in Cincinnati, Ohio. “That’s probably what’s going to happen.”

That comes just days after the American Association of Pediatrics issued new recommendations for the reopening of schools, including a suggestion that “everyone older than age 2 wear masks, regardless of vaccination status.” California already issued—and then quickly reversed—a statewide mandate for masking in schools. And The Washington Post reports that top coronavirus officials at the White House and CDC met this week to discuss whether new masking guidelines are necessary as the number of COVID-19 infections rises due to the new Delta variant.

It’s the beginning of a much wider push for a return to masking for all:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [has] recommend…that fully vaccinated people begin wearing masks indoors again in places with high Covid-19 transmission rates, according to people familiar with the matter.

Federal health officials still believe fully vaccinated individuals represent a very small amount of transmission, according to the sources. Still, some vaccinated people could be carrying higher levels of the virus than previously understood and potentially transmit the virus to others, they said.

This is backwards — and has raised serious questions in the public health community about the science (or lack of science) behind this reversal . The threat comes from those who remain unvaccinated. The vaccinated are protected from serious illness and death – exactly what a vaccine should do. The unvaccinated? They might listen to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey:

Here is the truth: Closing businesses will not defeat covid-19. Wearing masks will not defeat covid-19. And keeping our students from in-classroom learning will not defeat covid-19.

The good news is we have something that has proved helpful — safe and effective vaccines, which were developed in record time, and we can thank former president Donald Trump and all of those involved in Operation Warp Speed for making this medical miracle happen.

Or they can bury their heads in the anti-science sand.