Calls to lift mask mandates on children in schools rise amid the Biden administration's massive free-masks campaign to encourage the public to wear protective masks to manage the COVID-19 outbreak.
As the Omicron outbreak begins to peak in some areas, some pediatricians, neuroscientists, teachers, and parents express concern about the possible harm of prolonged masking in children.
Even proponents of mask regulations, who point to several studies linking mask mandates to reduced COVID rates in schools, recognize the challenges of masking kids, per NPR report.
Data scientist Jeremy Howard thinks that schools should continue the mandate on maks, citing the studies on long COVID. But the problem he sees is the rarity of good quality masks for kids in the market.
The standards for N95 masks were formulated for occupational and workplace safety. The Food and Drug Administration mentioned that N95 respirators "are not designed for children" and admitted that masks properly fit for kids "cannot be achieved."
Howard also pointed out that despite the availability of high-quality child-size respirators, most have lower quality compared to adult versions. "So, yeah, it's a huge issue. Kids are being left unprotected," he said.
He also believes that mandating respirators for children is impractical as some kids find it uncomfortable as they may not fit well on their small faces.
Read Also : CDC Urges Americans To Wear Mask With Highest Protection as Biden Administration Set To Give Away Free Masks
Restoring Normalcy in Children
Early this week, a group of doctors and scientists declared a national initiative to "restore normalcy" in children's lives by prioritizing their removal of restrictions, such as mask mandates, once the Omicron wave had passed.
The coalition includes Dr. Jeanne Noble, who directs COVID response for the UCSF Emergency Department at the University of California, San Francisco. She said that the mask mandate for kids is not practical.
"Kids don't need to be masked since they have a minuscule risk of serious disease or death from COVID," she argued.
Dr. Noble and her colleagues propose that extremely vulnerable kids continue to wear masks while other vaccinated children can go without.
Currently, nearly two-thirds of big school districts in the United States require pupils to wear masks. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest school district, revised its mask policy on Jan. 21 to prohibit cloth masks that provide less virus protection.
Schools in California have received tens of millions of N95 masks and kid-sized KN95 masks. In Boston, Denver, and Round Rock, Texas districts, student activists have demanded respirators ensure health safety.
Meanwhile, the newly elected Republican governor of Virginia issued a mandate by executive order that ended the state's school mask requirement, which met a flurry of opposition, per CNN.
Since the pandemic's start, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics continue to require universal masking in schools as total cases, and pediatric hospitalizations remain high.
Free N95 Masks Distribution Starts
Last week, the Biden administration announced to distribute around 400 million high-quality N95 masks to Americans for free to help bring down the surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.
Health authorities highly recommend the N95 masks as they can filter 95% of airborne particles, while cloth masks offer far less protection against COVID-19.
On Friday, major pharmacy chains started giving away respirators. Each individual can get up to three, per CBS News.
By the middle of this week, all 275 Hy-Vee pharmacies in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin were expected to have masks, according to the company's spokesperson.
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