A recent NPR report quotes a Maryland mother who complains that you risk being tarred as “a psychotic, anti-vax right-winger” if you dare to question whether children should be forced to wear face masks in day care and K‒12 schools. That attitude is based on the premise that rejecting mask requirements is tantamount to rejecting science.
The truth is closer to the opposite. Supporters of school mask mandates assume they are effective at reducing COVID-19 transmission, then desperately search for evidence to validate that conviction. That process bears little resemblance to science.
NPR says that “mask proponents . . . point to the many studies associating mask mandates with lower COVID-19 rates in schools.” But those studies are mostly imaginary.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began recommending “universal masking” in schools a year ago. At that point, there was no solid empirical basis for the CDC’s advice, and that is still true.
Most of the studies the CDC cited did not even compare schools with mask mandates with schools without them. One exception was a study of Georgia elementary schools published last May, which found that masking of teachers was associated with a statistically significant reduction in COVID-19 transmission, but masking of students was not.
ONLY Democrats crying over their New Governor in VA that they MUST OBEY !!!! LOL LOL