out specifically as a standalone item said joseph allen an expert on healthy buildings at harvard th chan school of public health weve been talking about this for 18 months at this pointwhy isnt the cdc setting specific standards for schoolsat this stage of the pandemic the agency said one set of overarching rules does not make sense vaccination rates vary enormously across the country and communities with low vaccine coverage may see significant outbreaks especially as delta spreadsthe guidance correctly recognizes that a topdown onesizefitsall approach is not the best at this stage of the pandemic dr allen said the guidance in vermont and massachusetts where vaccination rates are high and case counts are low should be different than in states where the opposite is happeningthe agency recommends that officials make decisions about which precautions to apply based on local conditions including vaccination rates levels of community virus transmission and whether a regular testing program is in placeimagecreditjohn mooregetty imagesalthough many experts say that a local approach makes good scientific sense flexibility also comes with risksthe lack of clear specific guidelines is likely to leave some districts unsure how to proceed and may lead to protracted political fights over exactly how to reopen dr nuzzo saidultimately experts predicted that a patchwork of different guidelines and requirements will emerge across the countryquite honestly i expect well see exactly what we saw last year dr allen said and in states that are predominantly blue states well see a very different approach to schools even though vaccination rates are higher than we will see in the more traditional red states where vaccination rates have been lower and for the most part they kept schools open last year with very minimal controls