Masking school children is abuse

OPINION:

When it comes to imposing mask mandates – especially for school children – Democrats simply don’t get it. If President Joe Biden and his cronies don’t pay more attention to parents and the health care professionals who care for their children, they’re going to set themselves up for an even worse shellacking than the one they suffered in 2010, when they lost 63 seats in the House of Representatives and brought an end to their short-lived era of one-party rule.

Mr. Biden said last week his administration is “checking” to see whether or not he has the legal authority to order a nationwide mask mandate for school children. “I don’t believe I do [have that power], thus far,” he told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “We’re checking that.”

That sounds suspiciously similar to what he said two weeks ago regarding the CDC-promulgated eviction moratorium – right before his administration had the CDC issue a “new” eviction moratorium.

But what’s a Supreme Court ruling when you’re a radical Democrat convinced you know best? Certainly, nothing to worry about, at least not enough to prevent you from doing something you don’t believe you have the legal authority to do. After all, to paraphrase (a most likely apocryphal quote) from Joseph Stalin, how many divisions does John Roberts have at his disposal?

First things first: Despite the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, parents know that school children should not be forced to wear masks as a condition of attending class in person. The CDC’s new guidance isn’t based on any scientific study proving that wearing masks reduces Covid transmission in children, as Drs. Marty Makary and H. Cody Meissner pointed out in a recent op-ed, there has been no scientific study with data to prove the point.

Further, explain Drs. Makary and Meissner, not only is there not any proof that forcing children to wear masks will help them; there actually is proof that forcing children to wear masks will hurt them: “[Children] who have myopia can have difficulty seeing because the mask fogs their glasses … Masks can cause severe acne and other skin problems. The discomfort of a mask distracts some children from learning. By increasing airway resistance during exhalation, masks can lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood. In March, Ireland’s Department of Health announced it won’t require masks in schools because they ‘may exacerbate anxiety or breathing difficulties for some students.’ Some children compensate for such difficulties by breathing through their mouths. Chronic and prolonged mouth breathing can alter facial development. It is well-documented that children who mouth-breathe because adenoids blocks their nasal airways can develop a mouth deformity and elongated face.”

Drs. Makary and Meissner then go on to catalog some of the other harms that can be done to children by forcing them to wear masks: “The possible psychological harm of widespread masking is an even greater worry. Facial expressions are integral to human connection, particularly for young children, who are only learning how to signal fear, confusion, and happiness. Covering a child’s face mutes these nonverbal forms of communication and can result in robotic and emotionless interactions, anxiety, and depression. Seeing people speak is a building block of phonetic development. It is especially important for children with disabilities such as a hearing impairment.”

Last week, Dr. Robert Redfield, the former head of the CDC, raised serious questions about the CDC’s new guidance on masking school children. “There’s a variety of negative public health consequences that happened as a consequence of doing virtual learning,” he said in an interview on FOX News. “I think it’s imperative that we get the kids back to face-to-face learning and do all we can to keep them there. There’s very few studies that really are compelling [to support masking] in that setting of the classroom.”

Of course, making matters worse for Democrats politically are the hypocritical scenes of Democrats disregarding their own masking demands. Whether it’s Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser going maskless at a wedding reception just hours after she reimposed mask mandate went into effect, or Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib dancing at a wedding without a mask after she criticized Sen. Rand Paul for urging Americans to resist new masking guidelines, or even former President Barack Obama celebrating his birthday maskless with hundreds of his closest friends, the message is clear. These mask mandates are good for everyone else, but no, not for the Democrat elites.

This outrageous hypocrisy, combined with the absurd mask mandates for school children, will come back to bite Democrats on the you-know-what. No one, most especially school children, should be required to wear a mask. The day of reckoning is coming sooner than Biden et al. think. The day of reckoning will arrive a year from November, with a midterm election rout that’s going to make Joe Biden look back on 2010 with fondness. You heard it here first.

• Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots.