Pirate's Cove

Bloomberg, and their editorial board, have long advocated for people to be forced to wear masks, especially school kids. But, now? This was interesting enough to create a separate post rather than going back and adding on to the earlier one

For Kids, Mask Mandates No Longer Make Sense

So far, four states — Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon — have announced that they’ll do away with requirements that K-12 students and teachers wear masks at school. Others may soon follow suit. It’s time.

To be clear: There’s evidence that masks may have been useful in blocking Covid infections in schools. A recent study conducted in two large Arizona counties found that outbreaks were more prevalent in schools that did not require masks than they were in those that did. This is one reason that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — in contrast with the World Health Organization — has recommended indoor masking for all students and teachers at K-12 schools, regardless of age or community transmission levels.

But as numerous experts have noted, this study and others that the CDC has relied on have shortcomings. The two Arizona counties in the study, for instance, had different rates of vaccinations. Meanwhile, other analyses have found little evidence that student mask mandates significantly reduce transmission rates. It’s fair to say the evidence is mixed.

Most other 1st World nations did not require the kids to mask up in school, that was mostly an invention of Democratic Party politicians.

One might still make a plausible case that masks make sense as a precaution. But there are worrying signs that they’re imposing steep costs on children’s social development. Research indicates that people of all ages have trouble recognizing faces that are half-covered by protective masks. For children, the difficulty is much greater. Masks appear to make it harder for kids to mentally assess and and process faces as a whole, which may weaken their ability to read other people’s emotions and form social ties. They may also struggle to hear their teachers and to pick up on nonverbal cues.

Gee, just like Republicans have been saying all along, as well as many non-Progressive Democratic voting parents.

With omicron case numbers plummeting, it’s reasonable to recalculate the balance between the protection masks provide and the difficulties they impose. In doing so, it pays to keep in mind school-age children’s relatively low risk of hospitalization and death from Covid — especially if they’re vaccinated, as almost all of them should be. What’s more, there’s evidence that kids do not readily spread the coronavirus to their elders at school.

We knew this in 2020.

For now, and unless Covid resurges in some new form, the potential harm caused by masks seems to outweigh the benefits. States and districts need to make a plan for relaxing these mandates — and then scrapping them altogether.

I wonder what changed to make the editorial board write this? Expect to see more of this type of stuff as the mid-terms start approaching.