By LINDSAY WHITEHURST

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — With the highly contagious delta variant fueling a surge in coronavirus cases just as students return to classrooms, major school districts in Arizona, Florida, Texas and beyond are increasingly defying Republican leaders who banned school mask mandates in several states.

The showdowns have drawn in the White House and landed in courtrooms where judges have so far allowed school mask requirements in two states.

Schools across the U.S. have a patchwork of different rules as they try to keep classrooms open during the coronavirus pandemic, but in several states GOP leaders banned districts from requiring all kids to wear masks.

But with infections and hospitalizations on the rise and vaccinations out of reach for young children, districts in blue-leaning urban areas especially are rebelling against the laws and requiring masks in schools — even if it means facing consequences from governors and courts. Districts in Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Broward County, Florida, are among those defying the mask laws.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened to withhold the salaries of school leaders who enact mask requirements.

“At no point shall I allow my decision to be influenced by a threat to my paycheck; a small price to pay considering the gravity of this issue and the potential impact to the health and well-being of our students and dedicated employees,” said Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of the state’s largest school district who is still deciding on a mandate ahead of the start of school later this month.

Masks are a key coronavirus-prevention tool that doesn’t pose health risks for kids older than toddler age and are most effective when worn by a larger number of people, public health experts say. The Centers for Disease Control has again recommended them for schools.

But mask rules have nevertheless drawn fierce protest, including takeovers of school board meetings, from activists who worry about side effects, question the need and say parents should decide.

The DeSantis threat to withhold salaries drew in the White House on Tuesday as press secretary Jen Psaki weighed paying out of federal funds to school officials who “do the right thing to protect students and keep schools safe and open.”

Though children are less likely to suffer serious health effects as compared with the elderly, the latest COVID wave hammering Florida is also fueling an “enormous increase” in cases among children, many of whom are sicker than doctors have seen previously, the chief medical officer at one of the state’s top children’s hospitals said Wednesday. Leaders of other medical systems in virus hotspots like Louisiana say a similar situation is occurring in their pediatric hospitals.

DeSantis, for his part, said the numbers of hospitalized kids are on the rise because total coronavirus cases are up. “There’s been no change in the proportion of pediatric patients who are COVID positive,” he said.

At least three Florida school districts appear to be defying DeSantis’s executive order forbidding masks, including the second-most-populous county in the state and another around the state capital.

In Texas, where COVID-19 hospitalizations have spiked to their highest level in six months, a judge sided with San Antonio and temporarily allowed the city, county and public schools to require masks. Another hearing is set for next week. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott banned mandates in July and is showing no sign of backing down, even as other school districts in major cities like Dallas, Houston and Austin issue mandates in defiance of his ban.

A state ban on mask mandates isn’t faring well in the courts in Arkansas either. It was temporarily blocked last week by a state judge who said the prohibition violated the state’s constitution. One plaintiff was an Arkansas school district where more than 1,000 staff and students had to quarantine because of a coronavirus outbreak.

Since the decision, at least three dozen school districts and charter schools have implemented mask requirements for teachers and students.

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas now says he regrets signing the ban, but lawmakers decided against reversing course during a special session last week.

In Utah, meanwhile, the health director over the state’s biggest county is trying to buck a state law with a new mandate for kids under 12. Angela Dunn, who previously became a target for anti-mask ire as the state epidemiologist, has said she’s deeply concerned about infections sickening kids and disrupting schools.

“There’s far less drama in a school where all kids are wearing masks than a spread of COVID within that school and kids being sent home to address illness, or to be put into quarantine or isolation,” said Democratic mayor Jenny Wilson, who’s backing the move that may yet be tanked by the Republican-controlled county council.

In South Carolina, a showdown is heating up between the Republican governor and the capital city over a school mask mandate that local leaders approved last week. The attorney general threatened to take Columbia to court if leaders try to enforce the rule aimed at protecting elementary and middle school kids too young to get vaccinated. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said Monday it should be up to parents whether to mask kids.

Dozens of doctors in Arizona have begged GOP Gov. Doug Ducey to mandate face coverings in public schools, but he’s held fast to a prohibition in the state budget. Still, about 10 districts in Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff, representing more than 130,000 students and 200 schools, have defied that prohibition and a high school biology teacher has filed a lawsuit challenging it. A hearing is set for Friday.

“There is no mask prohibition in Arizona,” gubernatorial spokeswoman C.J. Karamargin said last week. “The legislation passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor is clear: Arizona is anti-mask-mandate.”

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Associated Press writers around the country contributed to this report.

By EMILY SWANSON and TOM MURPHY

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans have high trust in doctors, nurses and pharmacists, a new poll finds.

Researchers say that trust could become important in the push to increase COVID-19 vaccinations, as long as unvaccinated people have care providers they know and are open to hearing new information about the vaccines.

At least 7 in 10 Americans trust doctors, nurses and pharmacists to do what’s right for them and their families either most or all of the time, according to the poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The poll shows high levels of trust among both Democrats and Republicans; men and women; and white, Black and Hispanic Americans.

When people get treatment or a service from a doctor or a nurse, they start building trust and then tend to return to those providers when they need more help or have questions about a health issue, said Michelle Strollo, a senior vice president in NORC’s Health Research Group.

“Public health officials should really look to doctors, nurses and pharmacists to be the megaphone to deliver the message of the importance of getting vaccinated,” she said.

Polling from the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation in June also showed people trusted doctors for information about the vaccine more than other sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert.

COVID-19 case levels are soaring across the country, driven by a highly contagious virus variant that mostly infects unvaccinated people, according to public health experts. President Joe Biden and others have pleaded with Americans to get the shots.

The COVID-19 vaccines have been widely available since spring, and the CDC reports that 71% of U.S. adults have received at least one dose.

Recently retired cardiologist Paul Vaitkus said he encouraged many of his patients, some of whom have been seeing him for years, to get the vaccine due to their health conditions. He thinks they listened to him.

“As a doctor, my patient knows me and they sized me up eye to eye,” the 62-year-old Gurnee, Illinois, resident said. “They know that I’m honest.”

Care providers could help encourage people to get vaccines, but the country’s fragmented health care system presents an obstacle.

Vaccination rates are low among the uninsured, noted Liz Hamel, director of public opinion and survey research for Kaiser.

“Those are the same people who are less likely to be in regular health care, to have those interactions with doctors and providers,” she said.

The same holds true for younger adults, who also have low vaccination rates. They are less likely to see a doctor regularly or get preventive care like annual checkups.

Plus, just getting someone into a doctor’s office or drugstore offers no guarantee that the patient will become vaccinated.

Hamel noted that attitudes toward the shots have become so politicized that people who trust a doctor to give them advice about other issues may not be open to hearing more about the vaccines.

“I think some people, based on politics, have completely closed off,” she said.

Doctors earn broad trust from the American public, and a slim majority are in favor of federal funding for increasing the number of doctors, according to the AP-NORC poll. But only about 2 in 10 support government funds for increasing doctors’ pay. Half of Americans say doctors are paid about right.

However, most Americans, including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans, think nurses and health care aides are underpaid.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to plague the U.S., the poll finds no significant shifts in opinions about health care policies, including the Affordable Care Act, a single payer health system or a public option.

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Murphy reported from Indianapolis.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,071 adults was conducted from June 10 to June 14. It used a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.