Why Masks are Bad for Kids
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
146.43985
Summary
As a strategy to control or minimize C.O.D.I.V. infections, masks are bad for kids. In fact, studies show that wearing a mask in public school can actually increase rates of absenteeism in the public school system.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
According to Global News, the Safe Schools Coalition, a grassroots organization consisting
00:00:13.140
of parents and educators in BC, are calling for the return of masks in the classrooms
00:00:18.680
now that the March break is over. The coalition argues that COVID cases will go up as a result
00:00:25.040
of the recent lifting of province-wide mask mandates and other restrictions, and this
00:00:30.320
is putting school-age children at risk. Coalition spokesperson Kayenton Martin stated that masks
00:00:36.560
really was our one true protection, and that's being removed. It would be interesting to see
00:00:42.800
if there is any scientific evidence to back up Ms. Martin's claims. After all, school kids have been
00:00:49.120
pulled in and out of school so often during the pandemic that it is difficult to determine whether
00:00:54.660
masks have had any protective effect at all. As a strategy to control or minimize COVID
00:01:01.140
infections, masks are bad for kids. Here's why. Recently, the Chief Medical Officer of Health for
00:01:08.820
Haldeman Norfolk in Ontario, Matt Strauss, explained why he was personally done with masking. He pointed
00:01:15.780
to a recent study that shows surgical masks reduce the risk of transmission and infection by only 11%
00:01:22.500
in adults under age 50. A somewhat greater protective effect was found for adults over 50,
00:01:28.900
but Strauss didn't say how much greater it is. If masks do such a poor job of protecting adults,
00:01:35.140
then how could they do any better at protecting children?
00:01:39.780
Here's some real-world evidence about mask efficacy brought out by someone who appears to be working
00:01:45.780
within the education system in Hamilton, Ontario. He notes that the Catholic schools ditched their
00:01:52.420
mask mandates while the public schools did not. As evidenced by the graph shown, there is no significant
00:01:59.700
difference in absenteeism rates between the two systems. In other words, masking did not substantially
00:02:05.860
improve absenteeism due to COVID or any other infectious disease. If anything, the graph shows that
00:02:12.740
rates of absenteeism are slightly worse in the public system where masks are widely mandated. Note
00:02:19.300
that this information wasn't gleaned from a scientist's opinion, but from simple real-world observation.
00:02:26.500
Masks hurt kids not just by inducing symptoms of depression and anxiety, but also by damaging their
00:02:32.980
ability to socialize and improve their social skills. Social skills are crucially important for a child's
00:02:39.060
ability to become a successful, self-managing, self-actualizing adult. Moreover, impaired language
00:02:46.420
acquisition can have serious consequences in later life, such as the inability to find and keep a job.
00:02:53.220
Here's what one mother had to say about the effects of masks on children where language acquisition is
00:02:58.260
concerned. There are numerous studies that confirm what the mother was saying. Masking impairs language
00:03:04.580
acquisition and makes the lives of hearing-impaired children needlessly difficult. The American
00:03:10.660
Institute for Economic Research cites numerous studies done by the CDC and others demonstrating
00:03:16.820
mask-related harms including long-lasting psychological consequences and impaired language acquisition.
00:03:23.300
And a German court recently ruled that masks cause serious psychological harm. Given all the evidence
00:03:30.180
against masks against masks, why are we still continuing to insist that children wear masks?
00:03:35.380
There are several reasons. Politics is one reason. The pandemic has been strongly politicized since day
00:03:42.340
one with some factions wanting to see a permanent continuation of mask mandates and other restrictions.
00:03:49.060
They want the restrictions to continue because they have something to gain, either money or power,
00:03:54.660
from keeping them in place, or their desires are driven by irrational fear, or they have a deep-seated need
00:04:01.860
to be right or to be seen as morally superior. Moreover, COVID masks are a form of political theater
00:04:09.700
that governments have used to show they are actually protecting people when they're really not.
00:04:15.060
They've even been used as a tool to encourage people to get vaccinated.
00:04:18.740
The unspoken proposition inherent in this is, want to do away with the masks, then get vaccinated, or else.
00:04:26.900
Another reason is that people want to keep the masks in place because they see masks as a security blanket
00:04:32.900
or magic talisman that will protect them from getting infected with COVID.
00:04:37.940
Finally, children are rarely severely affected by COVID. Most get a mild flu-like illness and fully recover.
00:04:45.300
It's time to drop the masks and let people and their children get on with their lives.
00:04:50.340
Action for Canada is actively working on your behalf to ensure that damaging mask mandates are permanently ended.