Let’s consider the argument for and against school-mandated masks. Whether you are facing a mandate for your child to wear a mask in school depends on where you live and if your child attends a public, private, or parochial school. It doesn’t hurt to have a bit of information regardless of whether it applies to you or not.
There are myriad reasons why a school might impose a mask mandate: the teachers union requires it, they are afraid of being sued if a child contracts it at school, they genuinely think the children have a high risk of contracting the disease at school. It goes on and on. However, the crucial question is which is greater, the benefit or the risk?
Looking at oxygen from a risk standpoint, we read on the Birth Injury Guide website that:
- One of the leading causes of infant brain damage is lack of oxygen shortly after birth.
- Infants with mild or moderate oxygen deprivation often have complete recoveries, especially if they receive prompt medical assistance and physical therapy.
- Some signs of infant brain damage may not be evident until the child starts missing developmental milestones.
So, obviously, oxygen is very important to brain development. Now let’s look at the oxygen needs of someone more mature than an infant. The National Association for Child Development (NACD) website tells us:
Specifically, we need to do as many things as possible to get the best circulation of blood to the brain that we can. This is important because our blood carries the oxygen to our brain, and oxygen is vital to brain growth and healing. Oxygenating the brain well is required to promote brain healing and brain use. Proper brain function requires a critical balance of a) correct breathing for oxygenation b) correct carbon dioxide and nitric oxide levels for circulation and c) a program of brain activities or exercises for growth stimulation.
It goes on to say:
- The brain uses about three times as much oxygen as muscles in the body do.
- Brain cells are very sensitive to decreases in oxygen levels and don’t survive or function well very long without it.
Now to masks. There is a standard that is used called the Fitted Filtration Efficiency (FFE). It determines how well a material filters out particles. The chart below from the EPA shows the effectiveness of various types of masks. Some of the results showed: “They found that the effectiveness of the masks varied widely: a three-layer knitted cotton mask blocked an average of 26.5 percent of particles in the chamber, while a washed, two-layer woven nylon mask with a filter insert and metal nose bridge blocked 79 percent of particles on average. Other masks scored somewhere in between.” (Emphasis mine.)
The CDC gives the following cautions:
The general public should be educated about mask use because cloth masks may give users a false sense of protection because of
their limited protection against acquiring infection (16). Correctly putting on and taking off cloth masks improves protection (Table). Taking a mask off is a high-risk process (34) because pathogens may be present on the outer surface of the mask and may result in self-contamination during removal (31). (Emphasis mine.)
According to the Mayo Clinic website, children presently make up about 24% of those affected with COVID-19, but, as you probably have heard, they don’t usually get as sick from it as adults do. There are cases, of course, where children with health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and asthma are at higher risk. Also, Black and Hispanic children catch the disease more often than Caucasian children.
A study referenced at Becker’s Hospital Review website tells us that just under 12 percent of children, or 2,430, were hospitalized because of COVID. About one-third of those had a severe enough infection to put them in ICU.
Now the most significant number: USA Today reports that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, out of ~73 million children in the United States, fewer than 700 have died from COVID-19. Dr. Daniel Rauch, chief of pediatric hospital medicine at Tufts Children’s Hospital in Boston said, “Think about it in terms of football stadiums. In 100,000 kids, one of them is not going to make it with COVID. Everyone else who walked in is going to walk out.” But, if that “one” were your child . . . ? On the other hand, the Center for Disease Control statistics show ~50,000 children under the age of 14 have died of all causes from the start of the pandemic to October 2021.
Now you have some information to consider when faced with masks or no masks for your children.