Children running around, playing in parks, riding on buses, and sitting in classrooms unencumbered by masks. This is a reality in many European countries including the U.K., Ireland, all of Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, where children under 12 are exempt from wearing masks. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) states that school outbreaks have not been a prominent feature of the current pandemic; the majority of children do not develop symptoms when infected with the virus; and that no evidence has been found to suggest that children or educational settings are the primary drivers of transmission. The Swiss Health Authority similarly states that children under 12 are not prone to being affected by the virus, there are no vulnerable groups to the coronavirus infection among children, and so far, everything indicates that children are not transmitting the disease.

These countries have explicitly recognized that the decision to mask children carries potential academic and social harms and may lack clear benefit.

But one may wonder aloud: there certainly must be benefits to masking children given that countless school boards in North America are mandating it?

Surprisingly, Dr.Schlechter-Perkins, Director of Emergency Medicine Infectious Disease Management at Boston Medical Center, is not aware of any studies that show conclusively that kids wearing masks in schools has any effect on their own morbidity or mortality or on the hospitalization or death rate in the community around them. In the largest scale study to date conducted by the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) which included 90’000 students in 169 schools in Georgia, the masking requirement failed to show any independent benefit or have a statistical impact.

Even the SickKids-led group of Ontario experts concedes that studies on the benefit of masking children are “extremely limited” and that one of those studies indeed found “no protective benefit” and concluded overall that there is a “lack of evidence that wearing a non-medical mask prevents covid transmission in children and youth.”

What are some of the developmental and educational concerns?

If you had to enroll your child in one of two schools and school 1 informed you:

School 1: There is a very low probability of your child contracting the virus and they will be able to develop healthy social skills and grow academically. This is what learning in our classes looks like:

School 2, on the other hand, informed you:

School 2: There is a very low probability of your child contracting the virus. However, at our school your student may experience the following: 60% of students suffer from irritability, 53% report headaches, 50% have difficulty concentrating, 38% have impaired learning, 37 % experience drowsiness and fatigue (Ref.3). Furthermore, students at our school:

• may have difficulty communicating clearly
• have difficulty learning non-verbal communication
• may have delayed language development
• may suffer from increased anxiety and physical stress which may impact their long-term health, well-being, and potential for school success
• may have difficulty developing healthy social skills
• may have difficulty recognizing faces and facial expressions (a skill that is only fully developed around age 14 under normal circumstances)
• may internalize the idea that the world outside and the people living in it are inherently dangerous

Please note: if your child has any learning difficulties or is a second language learner they will be disproportionately affected.

This is what learning in our classes looks like:

Unfortunately, most schools are choosing Option 2. They are grooming their students into ‘Generation Mask’ and are wagering our children’s developmental and educational future.

Hold school and program administrators accountable

Children – the developmentally most vulnerable population – are left with a burden that may affect them for years to come. We are told that children are resilient, that they will find ways to compensate. But, are we willing to accept another year of diminished education and personal growth for our children?

The onus is on those who recommend masking children to robustly demonstrate a meaningful benefit given the grave developmental and educational harms imposed on our children for another school year.

Share this post with your elementary school and program administrators and request that they respond to these concerns.

References

1. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/the-science-of-masking-kids-at-school-remains-uncertain.html
2. https://ajlamesa.medium.com/children-in-much-of-europe-will-be-going-maskless-at-school-this-fall-b244e4f035ad
3. https://healthpolicy.usc.edu/article/madatory-masking-of-school-children-is-a-bad-idea/
4. https://www.aier.org/article/masking-children-tragic-unscientific-and-damaging/
5. https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/children-masks-language-speech-faces-1.5948037
6. https://parentingscience.com/facial-expressions-for-kids/
7. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/well/family/Masks-child-development.html
8. https://www.sickkids.ca/en/news/archive/2021/covid19-updated-guidance-school-operation-during-pandemic/#considerations