Navigating COVID-19 On The North Shore 2 Years Later

SALEM, MA — As the wave of momentum to rid schools and much of society of the unnerving and often-divisive COVID-19 mitigation symbols of the past two years swept through the state last month, Dr. Kristin Pangallo was a dissenting voice of caution on the Salem School Committee.

The Salem State University science professor, School Committee member and mother of two young daughters took what she likely knew was not going to be the most popular stance when she was one of two School Committee members to vote against lifting the district's universal indoor mask mandate for school buildings.

She understood people were tired of the virus — as is she. And while there's a part of her that doesn't quite understand why simply putting on a mask indoors when you are around a lot of people is such a burden to so many, she acknowledges that masks had come to carry the “emotional weight of being a very physical sign of the pandemic."

Yet, Pangallo voted her conscience and her extensive research on the virus, and voted against lifting the mandate because, as she said during the March 7 meeting: “Schools are a special place.”

"I feel that in a school environment where children are legally required to be there seven hours a day I didn't feel comfortable with shifting the burden of individual protection to children who don't have a choice whether they want to be there," she told Patch in an interview on Friday. "You can have a reasonable conversation about when to remove a mask requirement when transmission in the community is so low there is no virus circulating in the schools.

“We didn’t quite reach that level, in my opinion.”

In the three weeks since the statewide universal school mask mandate was lifted, virus cases in schools — perhaps predictably — have begun to creep back up.

According to state Department of Public Health data, more than 2,500 students and staff across the state tested positive for COVID-19 this week — up 30 percent over a week ago.

As of Friday, the statewide seven-day rolling positive test average was back up to 2.08 percent following a low of 1.51 percent two weeks ago with cases rising in 143 communities.

While virus counts remain very low compared to the surge peaks of the past two Januarys, even the modest increase raises questions about what should be done amid what most infectious disease experts believe will be inevitable surges and spikes in the future.

And, more importantly, will society be willing to do it?

"We have to look at the tools that we have and then use them as needed," Pangallo said. "One of the lessons of public health is that you do have to look at what can be implemented and what can be tolerated in your community.

"You are not going to make everybody happy. You have to make the decision that is right."

That conflict played out over Zoom meetings across the North Shore in December and January as Boards of Health — many of which prior to the last two years might have been surprised to see more than two or three people attend their meetings who were not summoned for some sort of health code violation — were overrun with hundreds of residents logging on and looking to weigh on pending indoor mask and vaccination orders.

In some communities — including Salem — the opposition to continued mandates was so fierce among some that Board of Health and School Committee members were harassed at their houses and with personal messages of hate.

While much of that ire simmered down as the reimposed orders were rapidly lifted weeks later, the lingering scars from those interactions call into question what can be done if the data once again suggests that maybe something should be done.

"There is a strong motivation among people to believe what they want to be true," said Pangallo, adding that it has been painful to her to see so many scientists and officials vilified for doing the research and trying to act in the public interest. "If you never want to hear about COVID again, or never want to have to go back to masking again, you can make yourself believe it will never happen.

"But variants will arrive. Things will happen and we have to be ready to respond and make the best decisions we can at the time."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)