As schools being to open for the fall semester in cities across the country, a number of Republican governors are bucking mask guidelines from the Centers for Disease for Disease Control for children.
“In Florida, there will be no lockdowns, there will be no school closures, there will be no restrictions and no mandates in the state of Florida,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in a speech last week, stressing parents should be the ones to choose whether their children wear masks.
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Professor Dr. Marty Makary and Tufts Children’s Hospital Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Dr. Meissner did an analysis of the science behind masking children and found not only is it inconclusive, but that masking has detrimental effects on a child's well being, social development and ability to learn. From the Wall Street Journal:
Do masks reduce Covid transmission in children? Believe it or not, we could find only a single retrospective study on the question, and its results were inconclusive. Yet two weeks ago the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sternly decreed that 56 million U.S. children and adolescents, vaccinated or not, should cover their faces regardless of the prevalence of infection in their community. Authorities in many places took the cue to impose mandates in schools and elsewhere, on the theory that masks can’t do any harm.
That isn’t true. Some children are fine wearing a mask, but others struggle. Those who have myopia can have difficulty seeing because the mask fogs their glasses. (This has long been a problem for medical students in the operating room.) Masks can cause severe acne and other skin problems. The discomfort of a mask distracts some children from learning. By increasing airway resistance during exhalation, masks can lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood. And masks can be vectors for pathogens if they become moist or are used for too long.
Last week one of President Biden's former advisors on Wuhan coronavirus said cloth or paper masks don't work to stop the spread of the disease.
Dr. Michael Osterholm: "We know today that many of the face cloth coverings that people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement..."
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 2, 2021
"...We need to talk about better masking. We need to talk about N-95 respirators." pic.twitter.com/l6z3RAXTe6