“18 months of a developing child’s life is much more important than 18 months of ours.“
Dr. David Damsker
Recently a Palisades parent, Tammi Raabe, received via Right-to-Know an email exchange between Bucks County Health Director Dr. David Damsker and Doylestown Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Scott Levy. This exchange took place On August 15th and 16th, just hours before Dr. Levy spearheaded the ambush that forced Dr. Damsker to “recommend” school masking on August 17th.
These emails further elucidate Dr. Damsker’s pragmatic approach and consistent success, but they also raise serious questions as to the motives and incompetence of Doylestown Health’s top doctor.
In this article I will go through this email exchange one by one, and you can read the entire exchange here.
From: Levy MD, Scott
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2021 2:49 PM
To: Damsker, David C.
Subject: Re: School Guidance
–
Hope all is well
Given the plethora of recent data, changes in our understanding of delta, transmissibility, and ability of even the vaccinated to transmit live virus; I’d suggest this is a good opportunity for BC to reassess school masking recommendations.Scott
–
Sent via iPhone
Scott Levy, MD
VP-CMO
Doylestown Hospital
Earlier on August 15th, Dr. Damsker had released his 2021-2022 School Reopening Guidance and Frequently Asked Questions. Here, Dr. Levy responds to that guidance by nudging Dr. Damsker to recommend or mandate masks in schools.
Right out of the gate, we have a stunning admission from Dr. Levy: “…ability of even the vaccinated to transmit live virus“.
Dr. Levy has been a central figure in the decision of multiple local healthcare systems to fire any employee who does not get the vaccine. And yet on August 15th he had already known that the vaccine does not prevent transmission. Since that day, the evidence has grown clearer and clearer: there is no substantive difference in transmissibility between vaccinated and unvaccinated. And yet here we are in October, and Dr. Levy is still causing critical staffing shortages while he knows that there is no scientific or medical basis for doing so.
The Levy-induced staffing crisis has already caused Bucks County emergency rooms to have wait times measured in hours. If he knew all along that the policy doesn’t prevent transmission, then isn’t it criminal to unnecessarily cause harm to sick people who can’t find timely care? If you hear of a sick person waiting for hours to be treated in an emergency room–just know that was caused by Dr. Levy’s inept policy which he acknowledges doesn’t even work.
On Aug 15, 2021, at 3:55 PM, Damsker, David C. wrote:
–
Hi Scott,
–
If it came to it, I can recommend that masks be put on overnight if necessary, so that part doesn’t concern me as much. As you are well aware, we are trying to keep our hands on all of our local data for cases and hospitalizations. And of course I’m watching everywhere else, too.
–
Much of the difficulty on this is about benefits of mitigation in children versus the risk. The schools see the problems too, believe me, or they would all just throw masks on all the kids regardless of what I said. Learning loss and mental health issues are real, and have to be weighed against another school year like last year. Masking 100,000 kids isn’t harmless to every one of those children. And once delta settles down, and the next greek letter appears that doesn’t work with the vaccine as well, more school mitigation will be proposed. 18 months of a developing child’s life is much more important than 18 months of ours. So when cases go up, what we do at Pine Run or Neshaminy Manor SHOULD look different than what we do in schools – the risks aren’t even in the same stratosphere despite what we see on TV.
–
But yes, all options are always on the table, and my guidance can be very flexible. The calculus is different this year, both from the virus perspective AND from the long-term mitigation cost to children perspective. Hope that makes sense.
–
Thanks, David
At this point of the pandemic, after 18+ months of 2 weeks to flatten the curve, I find it hard to imagine that anyone would disagree with any of what Dr. Damsker says here. But some people are pretty incapable of thinking straight, so who knows. If you find something here that is disagreeable, email it to me at info@reopenbucks.com
From: Levy MD, Scott
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2021 5:21 PM
To: Damsker, David C.Subject: Re: School Guidance
–
With all due respect, my greatest fear is not an 8 year old developing Covid-likely mild.
It is that child as a vector bringing the disease to unvaccinated parents and/or vaccinated immunocompromised adults susceptible to serious disease.
The case count is growing, the trends Re obvious, the objective should be proactive, not mitigation after the fact.
BC needs to be seen as following the science and most creditable sources of expertise.Scott
–
Sent via iPhone
Scott Levy, MD
VP-CMO
Doylestown Hospital
Having failed to get the response from Dr. Damsker that he wanted, Dr. Levy tries again.
Once again, we get a stunning admission in which I don’t think Dr. Levy even realizes his own contradiction.
my greatest fear is not an 8 year old developing Covid-likely mild.
It is that child as a vector bringing the disease to unvaccinated parents and/or vaccinated immunocompromised adults susceptible to serious disease.
The entire August 17th ambush against Damsker was predicated on the idea that local pediatric hospitals would be overwhelmed with pediatric cases if kindergarteners weren’t forced to wear masks. So how could Dr. Levy argue that idea in good faith when he admitted two days earlier that pediatric COVID is mild?
Furthermore, by admitting that he is less concerned with the impact to schoolchildren and more concerned with the impact to the broader community, he highlights the importance of using COVID-19 community prevalence as a metric to compare school districts. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing since school started in Bucks County on August 30th.
Pennridge, Council Rock, and Central Bucks are the 3 Bucks County school districts that allow mask exception forms and do not quarantine asymptomatic close contacts. The municipalities that define these 3 school districts total 247,000 people. The municipalities that define the other 10 Bucks County school districts total 386,000 people. For the last month, I have been tracking the COVID-19 Community Prevalence in each Bucks County school district, and wouldn’t you know it: there is absolutely no difference between the 3 normal school districts and the 10 highly-mitigated school districts.
Hopefully after seeing this data, Dr. Levy is able to admit what is painfully obvious: school mitigation efforts do not meaningfully impact community COVID-19 levels.
On Aug 15, 2021, at 6:21 PM, Damsker, David C. wrote:
–
Immunocompromised people will continue to be susceptible to serious disease, whether it’s COVID or something else. But they definitely need to be more careful right now, for sure. Stay masked in public and get the booster. Yes, there are also unvaccinated people out there (why they still are, I have no idea.) But when we are dealing with a disease that will be here for years to come, the long term non-virus effects on children themselves have to be considered here. It’s not 2 weeks or 2 months: we’ll be going on 2 years soon and it’s now a 3rd consecutive school year that will likely be negatively affected. Kids are resilient, but only to a point. That’s becoming a pretty big price to pay. We may have to agree to disagree on that.
–
Scott, we have worked well together for a while now, and you’ve seen I haven’t always done everything according to the CDC guidelines and other “credible” sources during this pandemic if I didn’t think it made total sense for us here. But I think it’s worked well for our County locally so far, has it not? That’s what I’m continuing to do here with our school guidance.
–
I’m watching what’s happening, too, believe me. If a change needs to be made, I’ll make it.
–
Thanks,
David
In his 2nd paragraph, Dr. Damsker touches on something that continues to blow my mind: how do these hacks continue to attack him and his policies when Bucks County has done BETTER than almost all neighboring counties in terms of COVID mortality? Aren’t their continued attacks on him completely humiliating? It’s as if they don’t even follow the numbers or data:
From: Levy MD, Scott <SLevy@dh.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2021 11:39:30 PM
To: Damsker, David C.Subject: Re: School Guidance
–
At Doylestown we have followed CDC guidelines (at least) given their resources to crunch huge quantities of data.
Numerous organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend universal indoor masking for children. I have seen no creditable literature for an alternative approach.Scott
–
Scott Levy, MD
VP-CMO
Doylestown Hospital
Welp, I’m really starting to wonder if Dr. Levy is a serial liar or if he is just wildly incompetent. Doylestown Hospital specifically survived the pandemic because they followed Dr. Damsker, NOT the CDC. Throughout the pandemic, a solution known as Modified Quarantine was championed by Dr. Damsker and used throughout the county–including in hospitals. The policy allows close-contacts to continue working or attending school as long as they follow specific mitigation instructions such as consistent mask-wearing.
I’ve spoken to tons of Doylestown Hospital staff who continued to work in the hospital following close-contact exposure to COVID-19….because of Modified Quarantine. Without this policy, the hospital staff would not have made it through the initial surge in Spring of 2020. It’s shameful for Dr. Levy to try to shame Dr. Damsker with “At Doylestown we have followed the CDC guidelines (at least)“. It’s either a lie or he legit doesn’t know about Modified Quarantine and how it saved his hospital.
The last sentence in his email also causes me to wonder whether we’re dealing with dishonesty or incompetence. “I have seen no creditable (sp?) literature for an alternative approach.” Ummmmm how about the Public Health agencies of the United Kingdom, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, etc. etc.? Even COVID-crazy Germany and France have recently announced initiatives to wind-down mask-wearing in schools. The European Union’s CDC does NOT recommend masks for children under the age of 12. To say “I have seen no credible literature…” — how blind do you have to be?? The United States, and the CDC specifically, is an outlier on this issue.
From: Damsker, David C.
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2021 11:57 PM
To: Levy MD, Scott
Subject: Re: School Guidance–
I meant for schools. If I had followed CDC guidelines last year, not one school in Bucks County would have opened in-person.
Sick burn, but it’s the truth. If your kid had access to in-person instruction to start the 2020-2021 school year, it was because of Dr. Damsker going against the CDC. Remember how Montgomery County shut down all of their schools for two weeks in November 2020, but Bucks County didn’t? That was immeasurable learning loss for no reason, and Dr. Damsker avoided it. Everyone should be thanking him, especially now that there is widespread consensus that kids need to be in school.
From: Levy MD, Scott
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2021 9:42 AM
To: Damsker, David C.Subject: RE: School Guidance
–
We have had 25 (+) tests in the pediatrics population in the last 2 weeks-with school closed
–
Scott Levy, MD
VP-CMO
Doylestown Hospital
I guess by the next morning, August 16, Dr. Levy figured that he better pivot to talk about something else. Seems kind of random.
From: Damsker, David C.
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2021 9:55 AM
To: Levy MD, Scott
Subject: RE: School Guidance–
How does that compare to the busy 2 week periods over the winter and spring?
–
David C. Damsker, MD, MPH
Director
Bucks County Health Department
Seems like a reasonable question ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
From: Levy MD, Scott
To: Damsker, David C.
Subject: RE: School GuidanceDate: Monday, August 16, 2021 10:00:19 AM
–
David, maybe we should chat by phone.
Do you have availability late morning 11:30 or so
Our overall positivity rate is back to where it was in March with nearly as many tests; fortunately many vaccinated with obviously mild disease
With the marked increase in transmissibility of the Delta variant; kids back in school without masks nor vaccines; the outcome is clear that the community spread will even more dramatically increase
I fully support “back to school”; however to do so given our increase in cases (even before school starts) and contrary to the guidance of nearly all professional organizations who have crunched the number is indefensible in my view.
WE have mandated masks at Children’s Village a month ago and have no expectation of eliminating that requirement.–
Scott Levy, MD
VP-CMO
Doylestown Hospital
If we had an honest society, with people capable of true introspection, this email would be the end of Dr. Levy’s career. It’s just stunning how incorrect the guy is capable of being, considering his prominent position.
First of all, his claim that “kids back in school without masks” will cause community spread to “even more dramatically increase” is falsified by Bucks County data. As I said above, Pennridge, Council Rock, and Central Bucks school districts all allow mask exceptions. Pennridge and Council Rock both have a majority of students going maskless every day. There is no distinguishable difference in COVID-19 community prevalence between these 3 districts that follow Dr. Damsker and the other 10 districts that follow Dr. Levy. Meanwhile, the 3 districts following Dr. Damsker are actually delivering a quality education. Last week, Pennridge voted to send its cheerleading squad to a national competition in Florida, lol.
Secondly, and you’ll love this, cases in Bucks County haven’t even increased at all! About a week after Dr. Levy shared his doom and gloom with Dr. Damsker, cases in Bucks County (and the rest of the SEPA region) leveled off and have remained flat since.
It’s critical to note that this flattening of the curve happened before school even started. Schools then reopened the week of September 1, and most of them were fully mask optional for the first week of school. Yet there was no effect to the curve. Cases stayed flat. I would genuinely love to hear Dr. Levy try to explain this using his “we-must-mask-kindergarteners” logic.
Lastly, and most egregiously, Dr. Levy actually tries to boast about forcing masks in Children’s Village, the preschool/daycare at Doylestown Hospital. Did he seriously think this would sway Dr. Damsker? “Oh, well gee, they are forcibly masking 2-year-olds, I guess I ought do the same to kindergarteners“.
Let’s get one thing straight: The United States (because of people like Dr. Levy) is the only nation in the world forcing masks on toddlers. This practice is simply grotesque. Under 5 years-old is the age when masking causes the most harm, as toddlers actively engage in learning social and emotional cues and language development all via facial interaction. Furthermore, there is not a single piece of scientific literature anywhere in the world that even remotely suggests masking in this age group slows the spread of COVID-19. If you want to make a statement about not seeing any credible literature for something, masking toddlers is it.
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid.”
Valery Legasov, “Chernobyl”
