Masking School Children Is An Abuse Of Power With Long Lived Consequences
Sadly, there are still schools doing it
The other night a Massachusetts school committee voted to continue masking children 6-1. This is unacceptable for many reasons.
First, there isn’t a single cluster randomized trial showing efficacy for such an intervention. That said, the only appropriate RCT in existence was from Bangladesh. Essentially, it demonstrated cloth masks to be nothing more than a decoration. Sadly, that is what most parents are making their children wear as “protection” against covid during school. On the other hand, the Bangladesh mask trial revealed an 11.2% reduction in symptomatic seroprevalence associated with adults who wore surgical masks. That said, adults are not children so results for said cohort (adults) are not applicable to others (children). After all, if you conducted a randomized controlled trial on a new hypoglycemic drug developed for diabetics, you wouldn’t give it to Alzheimer’s patients.
Next, many new data have brought to light neurocognitive damage experienced by children because of mask wearing, and certainly many other NPIs (non-pharmaceutical interventions). Specifically, reduced verbal & non-verbal developmental quotients from 2019-2020. It should also be stated from 2019 to 2020, childhood intelligence quotients dropped by nearly 25%. Likely the result of stringent Covid measures. All and all, masking children during a time when facial reading and body language is required for development has clearly lead to a steep decline in the cognition of our youngest.
Now, if school committees continue to dictate public health measures, the future of medicine will be in for a wild ride. Up to now, academic institutions have went as far to 1.) implement non-evidenced based Covid health policy, 2.) provide no endpoints for school masking interventions, 3.) shy away from anthesis recommendations. All 3 aforementioned points are problematic as they result in harm done to children.
Succinctly put, when scientists are not the ones doing the sciencing, children are hurt by ignorant adults acting a pseudo-healthcare policy makers.
Moving on, schools creating and implementing their own Covid policies erode confidence in public health. That as a result of failed policy mistakenly reflecting on the actual professionals who didn’t implement them.
The takeaway. Masking children is not an intuitive intervention, nor is it based in science. Considering the evidence previously explained, a salient question needs answering. Do you feel masking children is harmful, or do you still feel it’s helpful?