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>the COVID situation in Florida, which has been steadily improving ever since schools opened There have been articles about how Florida recently switched to re

>the COVID situation in Florida, which has been steadily improving ever since schools opened There have been articles about how Florida recently switched to reporting deaths with the date of death, so it seems that it will continually appear that the rate plummeted recently. As time goes by, though, the graph will be filled in. Maybe people are being deceived by this. >pointless hygiene theater at this point You can be blasé about covid-19 and masks or not, you can be distrustful of all the random "experts" or not, but if you are, then it's "pointless theater" squared to spend time, money, and energy arguing, debating publicly, and fighting in court on exactly what we should do. It doesn't matter!

albertop 5y ago
Psychological harm caused by forcing mask on young children is well documented. So forcing something on them that has no positive effect matters a lot.
- rejectedandsad 5y ago
  They've experienced greater psychological harm by having their parents and grandparents get COVID. Basically the only place masks are a good idea is where the captive audience can't be vaccinated, which happens to be schools.
  - Gibbon1 5y ago
    In the US somewhere around 50,000 children lost a parent or guardian. Couple of million lost a grandparent. I've known a higher than average number of people who lost a parent when they were children or teenagers. That's bad in a lot of different ways and has a life long impact. So I find people trivializing that to be gross and utterly appalling.
    - albertop 5y ago
      It is tragic but what this has to do with forcing kids to wear mask? Sweden hit zero COVID death months ago, even though they never closed elementary schools and did not require masks. Children bear an incredibly small health risk with respect to the virus. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics suggests “children continue to face a far greater risk of critical illness from influenza than from COVID-19. In addition, children are unlikely to spread the virus. The WHO’s chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, recently told the BBC that children appear to be “less capable” of spreading the virus than adults. In addition, the WHO has not observed any significant outbreaks that can be linked to regular school attendance.
      - Gibbon1 5y ago
        > In addition, children are unlikely to spread the virus. That is something you have choose to believe.
        albertop 5y ago
        Or not.
        Gibbon1 5y ago
        Epidemiologists and public health officials disagree with you on that.
      - rejectedandsad 5y ago
        Masks help prevent the flu as well, for the record. Given quarantine policies for exposures the easiest way to keep kids in schools is to make sure the adults around them are vaccinated and that they take precautions before then. My state effectively hit zero Covid deaths too a few months ago and that was through vaccination.
    - perl4ever 5y ago
      They weren't trivializing losing a parent; they were trivializing wearing a mask by comparing it to losing a parent. Or a teacher, I guess.
- igetspam 5y ago
  Citation needed. My anecdotal evidence of my four year old not giving a crap about wearing a mask disagrees with you.
- brohee 5y ago
  More than an active shooter drill?
blub 5y ago
I remember reading that cloth masks may even be worse than no masks because while they stop large particles they also aerosolize the virus. They provide nearly no protection for the wearer. Don’t have the reference any more as I’ve long switched to surgical/FFP2, but this matches policy in central Europe.
dustintrex 5y ago
We're a year and half in at this point, and I've been masking throughout because I thought it would make a difference, plus I live in a country where it's compulsory anyway. However, I've yet to see a peer-reviewed, statistically significant study about non-medical mask use in social settings having a measurable effect. If you have any pointers, I'm all ears.
- Bailin 5y ago
  I found this list of 40+. The second one seems to fit your criteria https://www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/do-face-masks-work-here-are-49-scientific-studies-that-explain-why-they-do/ https://www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/do-face-masks-work-her...

albertop 5y ago

Psychological harm caused by forcing mask on young children is well documented. So forcing something on them that has no positive effect matters a lot.

rejectedandsad 5y ago
They've experienced greater psychological harm by having their parents and grandparents get COVID. Basically the only place masks are a good idea is where the captive audience can't be vaccinated, which happens to be schools.
- Gibbon1 5y ago
  In the US somewhere around 50,000 children lost a parent or guardian. Couple of million lost a grandparent. I've known a higher than average number of people who lost a parent when they were children or teenagers. That's bad in a lot of different ways and has a life long impact. So I find people trivializing that to be gross and utterly appalling.
  - albertop 5y ago
    It is tragic but what this has to do with forcing kids to wear mask? Sweden hit zero COVID death months ago, even though they never closed elementary schools and did not require masks. Children bear an incredibly small health risk with respect to the virus. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics suggests “children continue to face a far greater risk of critical illness from influenza than from COVID-19. In addition, children are unlikely to spread the virus. The WHO’s chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, recently told the BBC that children appear to be “less capable” of spreading the virus than adults. In addition, the WHO has not observed any significant outbreaks that can be linked to regular school attendance.
    - Gibbon1 5y ago
      > In addition, children are unlikely to spread the virus. That is something you have choose to believe.
      - albertop 5y ago
        Or not.
        Gibbon1 5y ago
        Epidemiologists and public health officials disagree with you on that.
    - rejectedandsad 5y ago
      Masks help prevent the flu as well, for the record. Given quarantine policies for exposures the easiest way to keep kids in schools is to make sure the adults around them are vaccinated and that they take precautions before then. My state effectively hit zero Covid deaths too a few months ago and that was through vaccination.
  - perl4ever 5y ago
    They weren't trivializing losing a parent; they were trivializing wearing a mask by comparing it to losing a parent. Or a teacher, I guess.
igetspam 5y ago
Citation needed. My anecdotal evidence of my four year old not giving a crap about wearing a mask disagrees with you.
brohee 5y ago
More than an active shooter drill?

blub 5y ago

I remember reading that cloth masks may even be worse than no masks because while they stop large particles they also aerosolize the virus. They provide nearly no protection for the wearer. Don’t have the reference any more as I’ve long switched to surgical/FFP2, but this matches policy in central Europe.

dustintrex 5y ago

We're a year and half in at this point, and I've been masking throughout because I thought it would make a difference, plus I live in a country where it's compulsory anyway. However, I've yet to see a peer-reviewed, statistically significant study about non-medical mask use in social settings having a measurable effect. If you have any pointers, I'm all ears.

Bailin 5y ago
I found this list of 40+. The second one seems to fit your criteria https://www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/do-face-masks-work-here-are-49-scientific-studies-that-explain-why-they-do/ https://www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/do-face-masks-work-her...