New York City Masks Toddlers

Just when you thought that the light of reason had made its way into the darker recesses of the minds of public health officials, New York City has chosen to maintain its masked mandate-- for toddlers.

Given the opportunity to damage young children, the morons who run the city have chosen to exercise their august authority and their complete ignorance of science.

Karol Markowicz explained in a Wall Street Journal op-ed:

New York City finally lifted its public-school mask mandate effective this week—with an exception that makes even less sense than the original requirement. “The indoor mask mandate is still active for children in LYFE, EarlyLearn (Infants & Toddlers), 3-K, Pre-K, and 4410 classrooms,” the city’s Department of Education tweeted March 4. Translation: The city will continue to force masks on the segment of the population at lowest risk for Covid, children 2 to 4.

The ostensible reason is that children under 5 aren’t eligible for vaccination. “People wanted to say, ‘Let’s lift it across the board,’ but that’s not what the science was showing us,” Mayor Eric Adams told reporters last week. “I know some people are concerned. I would rather people complain against me, than losing my babies in our city.”

Apparently, those of us who imagined that Adams would be a serious improvement over Comrade de Blasio have been disabused. He is just as stupid as Comrade Bill. And he knows even less about science. He has no awareness of the harm that masking does to children. And he knows nothing of the fact that the vaccine has only limited value for elementary school children.

Markowicz explains:

The New York state Health Department released a study last week that found “there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine on children, particularly those 5-11 years and after the Omicron variant’s emergence.” That’s the Pfizer shot, the only one approved for minors. Its effectiveness at preventing infection dropped to 12% for 5- to 11-year-olds during Omicron.

Only 43% of New York City kids 5 to 11 are vaccinated anyway, and the city doesn’t require vaccination as a precondition of school attendance. (It has also lifted its vaccine mandate for restaurants and other indoor venues.)

Apparently, Adams is getting his information from the CDC. Yet, the CDC stands alone in the world promoting masks for toddlers. No one else does it. School districts across the nation do not do it. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the only public health agency in the world to recommend masking toddlers in the first place. They are at almost no risk of serious illness from Covid, and not a single study has found that masks help stop viral spread in this age group.

And then there is the harm that masking does to children who are just learning language:

And masks probably do real harm to young children. When a politician removes his mask to address an audience, he is acknowledging that masking makes communication more difficult. Little kids are hard to understand even when you can see their faces.

These are the foundational years, when children learn so much by reading faces, watching mouths and mimicking sounds. We used to understand the importance of early childhood but, like so much else, we’ve discarded that knowledge to poorly combat the Covid-19 virus.