On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its COVID-19 guidance for schools.
While emphasizing that “students benefit from in-person learning,” and that “safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority,” the guidance also promotes vaccinations for kids over the age of twelve, even though, statistically speaking, school-age kids are largely unaffected by COVID-19, and their recovery rates are somewhere around 99.997%.
Despite the data showing that children could return to school safely and mask-free, the CDC still recommends that “masks should be worn indoors by all individuals (age 2 and older) who are not fully vaccinated.”
“Consistent and correct mask use by people who are not fully vaccinated is especially important indoors and in crowded settings, when physical distancing cannot be maintained,” the guidance says.
The CDC also still recommends schools continue social distancing practices, with at least 3 feet distance between students in classrooms in addition to the mask-wearing by those who are unvaccinated. “When it is not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, such as when schools cannot fully re-open while maintaining these distances, it is especially important to layer multiple other prevention strategies, such as indoor masking,” they insist.
This could pose a potential problem for parents who are aware of two things.
First, Dr. Anthony Fauci acknowledged early on that masks don’t keep out the virus. “Masks are really for infected people to protect them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection,” Fauci wrote in an email on February 5, 2020. “The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.” This demonstrated itself in the real world when it became clear that mask mandates had no impact on infection rates. A recent study also showed that masks didn’t slow the spread of the COVID-19.
So, not only do masks basically do nothing if you’re healthy, but they’re also really gross.
Last month, we learned about a group of parents in Florida who sent masks that their kids had worn to a lab to find out how clean they really are. It turns out that even freshly-laundered masks that “had been worn for 5 to 8 hours, most during in-person schooling by children aged 6 through 11” contained eleven dangerous pathogens:
- Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumonia)
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis (tuberculosis)
- Neisseria meningitidis (meningitis, sepsis)
- Acanthamoeba polyphaga (keratitis and granulomatous amebic encephalitis)
- Acinetobacter baumanni (pneumonia, bloodstream infections, meningitis, UTIs— resistant to antibiotics)
- Escherichia coli (food poisoning)
- Borrelia burgdorferi (causes Lyme disease)
- Corynebacterium diphtheriae (diphtheria)
- Legionella pneumophila (Legionnaires’ disease)
- Staphylococcus pyogenes serotype M3 (severe infections—high morbidity rates)
- Staphylococcus aureus (meningitis, sepsis)
“Half of the masks were contaminated with one or more strains of pneumonia-causing bacteria. One-third were contaminated with one or more strains of meningitis-causing bacteria. One-third were contaminated with dangerous, antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens,” the report reads. “In addition, less dangerous pathogens were identified, including pathogens that can cause fever, ulcers, acne, yeast infections, strep throat, periodontal disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and more.” As a control, a child’s worn t-shirt and unworn masks were tested. “No pathogens were found on the controls.”
So, let’s review:
- Children have a COVID recovery rate of 99.997%.
- Masks don’t prevent infection in healthy people, Fauci admitted it.
- Masks worn by children accumulate many other dangerous pathogens.
So, why is the CDC still recommending children wear masks? While I suppose it’s a good thing that the CDC says “safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority,” they can do so without forcing kids to wear masks all day. These kids are too young to get vaccinated. Even if vaccination is ever deemed okay for kids, the vaccine is too new to justify having kids vaccinated before determining the long-term effects of the vaccines.
