Your very statement of "which is something we know is highly effective (purely from a physics point of view). " is misleading As both this story, and the "fact

Your very statement of "which is something we know is highly effective (purely from a physics point of view). " is misleading As both this story, and the "fact checked" story (as well as the position of many others) is not really talking about masks at the physics level (though new data about omicron is placing that in question now as well) but masking as a POLICY it may be true that masks themselves are effective, but due to human nature masking POLICIES, including masking POLICIES in schools are not. Human interactions with the mask have we have seen countless times are far far far from perfect, people pulling on the masks, masks around chins, removing the mask to cough or sneeze, etc. Children will be even less disciplined So I dont think they are questioning the mask as a technical barrier to stop covid, they are questioning the masks as a public policy given that humans are involved