7 ms·

The chance of a child dying from coronavirus is infinitesimal, the response should be proportional.

TameAntelope 5y ago
It's only infinitesimal due to all of the precautions being taken. Remove those precautions, and more children will die. Also pretty great, you're cool with a couple dozen kids dying because otherwise some kids might be mildly inconvenienced by wearing a mask. The discomfort is infinitesimal, the response should be proportional.
- TurkishPoptart 5y ago
  More children dealing with Covidism (it's a cult at this point) enforced in schools are going to off themselves from the psychological abuse of being denied a social life than will be saved by enforcing cloth mask policy.
  - TameAntelope 5y ago
    Luckily Covidism isn't real, so it's not very harmful to children.
- brimble 5y ago
  I've been pro-masking-in-schools for other reasons (including the practical reality that many schools would have had to shut down without it, since many teachers would have just quit—I know a lot of teachers, and whether you think it's right or wrong, that was going to happen, last school year especially, if precautions like masking, distancing, and long quarantine periods hadn't been enforced) but the risk specifically to kids under ~12 has been low enough not to trigger my "this is significantly-enough riskier than the average time a kid spends being driven around in a car in a given year, that I should worry about it" alarm pretty much throughout the pandemic. I looked into it when the first semi-reliable mortality numbers started to come in (I have some young kids, so of course I did) and it seemed well below nearly anyone's freak-out threshold, except for kids with other risk factors, some of whom probably shouldn't have been in school at all for any of this.
  - TameAntelope 5y ago
    Right, but you aren't really someone who should have much of a say over this, and neither are any parents. The people most knowledgable about this topic are (though not universally) arriving at the conclusion that children should continue to wear masks. Besides, wearing a mask is not exactly a heavy burden to bear. Yes, it's annoying, but the consequences of not doing so are also annoying, and in more than zero cases deadly. It's such a low burden, that it's almost silly to think about not doing it, given the current situation. Honestly, it just seems like parents are taking out their frustrations about the situation on other people who are also stuck in this situation. It's absolutely bananas, how acrimonious this has gotten, all because political actors saw a way to divide the country in a way that benefitted them.
    - brimble 5y ago
      > Besides, wearing a mask is not exactly a heavy burden to bear. Yes, it's annoying, but the consequences of not doing so are also annoying, and in more than zero cases deadly. Sure, but tons of things are deadly in a non-zero number of cases, which most people give no thought to. Micromorts are everywhere. I've been baffled at the strong anti-mask reaction and the way so many people've wanted to toss mask mandates and other measures out the second things even slightly improve, but if current trends continue (Omicron burning out, the virus generally getting less-bad, vaccinations continuing to be administered) I'll have (weakly, without really caring that much) joined team-no-mask-mandates-in-schools by next school year. My kids have been champs at wearing them but it's clear they're a (minor) problem in school, from the muffling effect if nothing else, and that compliance and good mask-wearing generally is pretty shit among younger kids anyway. I think we're probably past the cost/reward tipping point already, but again, I've tended to favor sticking with safety measures until we're extra sure, if only to avoid policy change whiplash. OTOH I kind of love masks and hope it remains non-weird to go out in public in one. Two years of no illnesses in our house has been awesome.
      - TameAntelope 5y ago
        There aren't tons of things you do that actively harm others, and when there are those things, they're regulated and compliance is enforced via legislation. Wearing/not wearing a mask is not a heavy burden to bear, and by not doing it, you're increasing the net risk of everyone around you, in addition to your own. That's what makes this different from wearing a helmet 24/7. But you knew that! Why is this the thing we can't do for one another, this small, one thing?!

It's only infinitesimal due to all of the precautions being taken. Remove those precautions, and more children will die. Also pretty great, you're cool with a couple dozen kids dying because otherwise some kids might be mildly inconvenienced by wearing a mask. The discomfort is infinitesimal, the response should be proportional.

TurkishPoptart 5y ago
More children dealing with Covidism (it's a cult at this point) enforced in schools are going to off themselves from the psychological abuse of being denied a social life than will be saved by enforcing cloth mask policy.
- TameAntelope 5y ago
  Luckily Covidism isn't real, so it's not very harmful to children.
brimble 5y ago
I've been pro-masking-in-schools for other reasons (including the practical reality that many schools would have had to shut down without it, since many teachers would have just quit—I know a lot of teachers, and whether you think it's right or wrong, that was going to happen, last school year especially, if precautions like masking, distancing, and long quarantine periods hadn't been enforced) but the risk specifically to kids under ~12 has been low enough not to trigger my "this is significantly-enough riskier than the average time a kid spends being driven around in a car in a given year, that I should worry about it" alarm pretty much throughout the pandemic. I looked into it when the first semi-reliable mortality numbers started to come in (I have some young kids, so of course I did) and it seemed well below nearly anyone's freak-out threshold, except for kids with other risk factors, some of whom probably shouldn't have been in school at all for any of this.
- TameAntelope 5y ago
  Right, but you aren't really someone who should have much of a say over this, and neither are any parents. The people most knowledgable about this topic are (though not universally) arriving at the conclusion that children should continue to wear masks. Besides, wearing a mask is not exactly a heavy burden to bear. Yes, it's annoying, but the consequences of not doing so are also annoying, and in more than zero cases deadly. It's such a low burden, that it's almost silly to think about not doing it, given the current situation. Honestly, it just seems like parents are taking out their frustrations about the situation on other people who are also stuck in this situation. It's absolutely bananas, how acrimonious this has gotten, all because political actors saw a way to divide the country in a way that benefitted them.
  - brimble 5y ago
    > Besides, wearing a mask is not exactly a heavy burden to bear. Yes, it's annoying, but the consequences of not doing so are also annoying, and in more than zero cases deadly. Sure, but tons of things are deadly in a non-zero number of cases, which most people give no thought to. Micromorts are everywhere. I've been baffled at the strong anti-mask reaction and the way so many people've wanted to toss mask mandates and other measures out the second things even slightly improve, but if current trends continue (Omicron burning out, the virus generally getting less-bad, vaccinations continuing to be administered) I'll have (weakly, without really caring that much) joined team-no-mask-mandates-in-schools by next school year. My kids have been champs at wearing them but it's clear they're a (minor) problem in school, from the muffling effect if nothing else, and that compliance and good mask-wearing generally is pretty shit among younger kids anyway. I think we're probably past the cost/reward tipping point already, but again, I've tended to favor sticking with safety measures until we're extra sure, if only to avoid policy change whiplash. OTOH I kind of love masks and hope it remains non-weird to go out in public in one. Two years of no illnesses in our house has been awesome.
    - TameAntelope 5y ago
      There aren't tons of things you do that actively harm others, and when there are those things, they're regulated and compliance is enforced via legislation. Wearing/not wearing a mask is not a heavy burden to bear, and by not doing it, you're increasing the net risk of everyone around you, in addition to your own. That's what makes this different from wearing a helmet 24/7. But you knew that! Why is this the thing we can't do for one another, this small, one thing?!