What about the children? Think of the children? That mantra is about to be jacked up to eleven when it becomes time to send kids back to school. It’s rapidly approaching. The Biden White House wants new mask mandates. Hell, they want mandatory vaccinations, but can’t give a full-throated endorsement due to the upcoming midterm elections. They’re delegating that to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and they’ll follow whatever advice they give, nice escape hatch there, by the way. It’s painfully obvious that the CDC is going to back mask-wearing for kids. I don’t even know why they’re delaying the inevitable here. And the reaction should be one of mockery.
We all know that kids generally don’t get it or spread it. We know that. One is too many but the death toll from COVID in the 18 and under demographic is just 335 total. It’s tragic, yes—but the overreaction and fearmongering about kids and COVID has reached Hunter Biden-crack cocaine levels of crazy. Since February, we’ve known that kids are not at risk for COVID infection. President Joe Biden said that. If that’s not the case, then the president should be banned from all social media platforms for peddling misinformation. I’ve been told that’s the new rule now per WH spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Anyway, Beth Mandel had a good op-ed in The New York Post about forcing young kids to mask up. It may do more harm than COVID ever could to these kiddos, which is why health advisers in the United Kingdom have taken a vastly different approach on masking in this age group (via NY Post) [emphasis mine]:
President Biden shreds teachers unions' entire argument:
— Mark Bednar (@MarkBednar) February 17, 2021
"Children aren't the people most likely to get COVID"
"You're the safest group of people in the whole world, number one. Number two, you're not likely be able to be exposed to something and spread it to Mommy or Daddy." pic.twitter.com/h8AxLCac1m
On Wednesday night at a CNN townhall, President Biden predicted the CDC is going to recommend kids who are unable to be vaccinated, those under the age of 12, “should probably be wearing a mask in school . . . That’s probably what’s going to happen.”
[…]
By virtue of being a child, they are more protected against the ill-effects of the virus vs. vaccinated individuals. The vaccine offers a great deal of protection, but being a child offers even more. Children are less at risk of severe COVID risk and death than vaccinated adults, according to the vast amount of data we have gathered over the last year and a half of the pandemic, and the last year of vaccine research.
We are just beginning to learn about the ill-effects of masking on kids in particular: The psychological, developmental and social toll of having one’s face covered.
The UK has decided to keep kids out of masks. “It’s important that primary schoolchildren don’t wear face coverings,” says Public Health England’s medical adviser Dr. Susan Hopkins. She explains that this is because COVID infection rates are low among their age group and wearing face coverings “could affect their development.”
Unlike the other data we’ve gathered, we have never seen any research that indicates that masking children actually makes a dent in COVID cases. In a survey of cases in Florida among schools where masks were optional and required, the latter saw more cases per 100,000.
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Follow the science is what I’ve been told the experts were doing. Apparently, that’s not the case. This wouldn’t even be a topic of discussion otherwise, but if there’s one way to build a foundation of credibility around the draconian COVID measures—it’s to spread fear among parents about COVID and their kids.
Should you still be careful? Yes. If your child has a pre-existing condition, of course, that’s the case. That probably already was already the case for most families in this situation pre-COVID. Ask questions, parents. Go to the school board meetings. Ask questions. Lots of them. You’ll see—there isn’t much science behind these measures. It’s science fiction.
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