In case there isn't enough righteous indignation to be had over the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Democratic politicians insisting on mask mandates for children, get ready for more. As Mary Kekatos reported for Daily Mail on Wednesday, the United States is just one of seven western nations with such mask mandates for children. And, even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved the Pfizer vaccine for children 5-11 years old, it doesn't look like the powers that be are ready to soften up.
Megyn Kelly tweeted Kekatos' article, noting how the distinction is a "badge of stupidity and shame."
A badge of stupidity and shame. https://t.co/UQuQHCe3ck
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) November 11, 2021
Other such countries with mask mandates for children include Spain, Canada, France, Portugal, Romania, and Italy.
Also noted is those countries which no longer or have never had a mask mandate for children. Australia and New Zealand are on that list, which may surprise. Even countries with particularly severe restrictions under the guise of the pandemic, do not subject children to masking.
Others include the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Hungary, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden.
When it comes to distinguishing between the United States and United Kingdom, Kekatos writes:
The risk of being hospitalized and death is much smaller with less than 0.1 percent of kids falling severely ill or dying of Covid.
And because of this low risk, most Western nations have opted to ditch the masks and have kids return to 'normalcy' in classrooms.
In the UK, for example, millions of children returned to schools in early September with face coverings not required.
And while masks are a politically divisive issue in the U.S., members of both the Conservative and Labour Parties in the UK have stated that wearing masks prevent children from being able to communicate and socialize.
That gamble appears to have paid off.
A recent DailyMail.com analysis found that kids in the U.S. are being hospitalized at a rate up to four times higher than kids in the UK.
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As for why so many European nations do not have such mandates, Kekatos offers that it's because many Europeans are more vaccinated than many states here are, higher trust in the authority of the European Union, and more testing in Europe.
On this last note, Kekatos writes:
Currently the UK's Department of Education requires all secondary school students, between ages 11 and 18, be tested at home twice a week using tests.
Additionally, Norway is mass testing students to phase out quarantining students amid Covid outbreaks.
Because there is no regular testing at many U.S. schools, kids are being sent to classrooms instead of being kept at home because tests aren't detecting these cases.
This can lead to these children being hospitalized themselves or infecting other children who end up hospitalized.
Mask mandates for children has been a major part of American politics as students returned to in-person instruction for the first time in about 18 months.
States decide their own rules here, sort of, and it gets complicated. Citing Burbio's K-12 School Opening Tracker, Kekatos pointed out that 68.2 percent of the top 500 districts require masks.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has doubled down on the insistence that children remain masked in school, despite vaccine approval. As has U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Sadly, such insistence is not surprising considering Dr. Walensky, in an absurd tweet I highlighted, emphasized masking up not just when it comes to COVID, but the flu and even the common cold.
Democratic politicians, like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, have also insisted on forcing children to mask up. However, the incoming mayor, Eric Adams, who is a Democrat with common sense at least, looks willing to relent on the mandate.
In the recent Virginia gubernatorial race, where Democrat Terry McAuliffe was defeated by Republican Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin, McAuliffe attempted to make COVID-19 a defining issue. In his fear mongering, McAuliffe even shared and repeated false numbers of those affected by the virus, for which he received "Four Pinocchios" by the Washington Post fact-checker, as Landon reported.
Meanwhile, when it comes to governors who want to empower parents into making that decision whether their children should wear masks, they're met with pushback. On July 30, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) issued an executive order preventing school districts from issuing mask mandate is one example where the courts and the Biden administration have gotten involved.
In a statement for Townhall, Christina Pushaw, the press secretary for Gov. DeSantis pointed out that "kids in Florida are NOT forced to wear masks at school. Forced masking is unscientific and can interfere with their academic and social development. In Florida, parents have the right to choose whether or not their kids wear a mask to school."
"Since school started in August, COVID cases have fallen more than 90 percent. For the first two months of this school year, some districts were illegally forcing kids to cover their faces. Forced masking made no difference in the rate of COVID decline," she added.
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, as Katie reported last month, has also told reporters that the data on masking children "is very weak and that's a fact."
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