Urgency of Normal calls for an end to school mask mandates
(Nationwide) – Today, Urgency of Normal must once again sound a critical alarm to end ongoing pandemic restrictions and to instead maintain normalcy for children. After almost three years of one disruption after another, the data is clear: pandemic restrictions have not been proven to be effective and continue to take a tremendous toll on students, with the impact on learning and mental health being particularly unsettling.
Nearly one year ago, we released an advocacy toolkit entitled “Children, COVID and the Urgency of Normal” . The toolkit presented clear data for assisting parents, students, teachers, and administrators in understanding the whole-person status of our children’s health with respect to COVID19 and the ongoing restrictions affecting their lives. Since releasing our toolkit, we’ve seen many of those restrictions disappear and children return to varying degrees of normalcy in school and extracurricular activities.
Today, as calls for return to masking are seen in school districts and institutions of higher education across the country, Urgency of Normal is once again pointing to the lack of evidence supporting the use of masks to prevent the transmission of COVID19 and other respiratory viruses in schools, as well as the growing evidence of harm from these types of restrictions to children at all development stages.
Dr. Ashish Jha, the current White House COVID19 coordinator, said in a recent discussion with the Philadelphia Inquirer that “There is no study in the world that shows that masks work that well.” Dr. Jha’s statement is backed up by years of evidence released prior to and after the COVID19 pandemic illustrating the ineffectiveness of masks and mask mandates.
Studies from Spain, Finland, and the United States all showed that face masks in children did not reduce Covid19 transmission. These studies are further supported by studies showing minimal transmission of COVID19 in school settings where masks were not worn. In contrast, the evidence presented by US public health agencies supporting the use of masks in school suffers from serious flaws and errors and does not align with the recommendations from other leading health agencies including the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Furthermore, evidence continues to grow regarding the harms of masking children, particularly in a school setting. Limited facial observation due to masking of teachers and peers should not be discounted as harmless, especially in young children and those with special needs. When faces are hidden, a child’s natural learning is compromised. Masking mandates in schools are anticipated to have the largest negative impacts on students learning English as a second language, with learning and/or mental health disorders and students with other special needs.
Finally, surveys consistently show that masks make learning and communication more difficult, and may contribute to school issues. The UK’s Ofsted report demonstrates that COVID19 restrictions have compromised personal, social and emotional development milestones in early childhood.
Masking is not aligned with any organization that stands for diversity, equity, and inclusivity. "A mask mandate essentially takes away the option for parents of ESL students, students with hearing impairment, or young language learners, to prioritize their children’s needs as learners by focusing on an infectious disease that the children have likely already acquired at this point or are vaccinated against,” said Dr. Carol Vidal, M.D., Ph.D., Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. “These mandates also ignore the lack of evidence of masks working in the real world, especially in the school setting. At this time, we don’t have strong evidence supporting mandates nor evidence that masking has no harmful effects, which is why I believe masking children should be optional.”
“It is important to understand that the CDC has never recommended community masking for seasonal influenza and RSV, and in fact published a review in 2020 of numerous studies finding no significant impact from masking on flu transmission. The FDA states that surgical masks are protective for splashes and large droplets but do not give complete protection due to the loose fit. Students may actually contaminate themselves while adjusting their poorly-fitting masks throughout the day, so it does not make sense to impose these additional barriers at school,” said Dr. Eliza Holland, a Pediatric Hospitalist in Virginia.
Urgency of Normal therefore emphasizes that continued pandemic mitigation measures like mask mandates are not justified for respiratory viruses. It is in children’s best interests to normalize the daily school experience and put an end to unnecessary and harmful restrictions.
