Masks for kids

[bingowingsmcgee]

Is it masks all day then for secondary kids? Can't they just offer all the staff the vaccine and then crack on? Pretty horrible for the kids.

Completely aware of that. It was in answer to someone who asked their kids what they thought, its easy to have an opinion when you havent tried it. Im sure mosr children will be fine. But not all.

Correct - most kids are fine, as so many of us have repeatedly said on here.

I don't understand why people say that in other countries kids wear masks and suffer no ill consequences. How do you know? I have friends in Spain and they hate putting masks on their kids.

@Mcmole I work wearing a mask 14 hours a day, I wear glasses. It's not an issue.. I wear a surgical mask for walking around the hospital and I wear an n95 mask for when I'm in the operating room. Lots of surgeons also wear glasses. It's not traumatic. Or does it stop being traumatic to wear a mask and glasses when you hit 18? Like a magic occasion, hey you're legal to drink alcohol and oh my god! You can wear a mask and your glasses without getting ptsd!! Best catch up on the last 7 years of schooling...
oh wait ..

@DipSwimSwoosh

I don't understand why people say that in other countries kids wear masks and suffer no ill consequences. How do you know? I have friends in Spain and they hate putting masks on their kids.

Are the kids bothered or do the parents just not like it? Obviously I would prefer my kids not to have to bother with face masks but they don't mind wearing them, it's just part of protecting everyone in society and making schools safer so they can continue to attend. I don't know of any one else who has a problem with it. It's really not a big deal.

Why is it that this country is so pathetic? Many parents and children in other countries have been wearing masks for months 🤦‍♀️

I'm in Spain BTW, my kids have been wearing them since September.

@DipSwimSwoosh

I don't understand why people say that in other countries kids wear masks and suffer no ill consequences. How do you know? I have friends in Spain and they hate putting masks on their kids.

Well. It's because our kids are wearing masks and suffering no ill consequences.

I know because that's what they've said to me.

I know this will sound weird coming from a parent whose children wear masks to school, but we do actually love our children and check on how they're doing pretty regularly.

@Bing12, absolutely. In a “normal” world, of course I wouldn’t want my children in masks. But fact is, mask-wearing in my town is universal, has been since March 2020 and nobody is kicking up a stink about it because a. It’s a Democrat-heavy town, so no libertarian resistance types bleating about masks taking away their civil liberties. And b. The science has shown that mask-wearing indoors significantly reduces transmission. There have been a few cases in the school district necessitating quarantine, but mask-wearing, along with distancing and plexi shields, has allowed my children to:

Be in school since September without interruption, at first in a daily hybrid model, and full-time since September.

Go to small indoor birthday parties

Participate in indoor soccer and gymnastics

At weekends, go indoor rock climbing, to trampoline parks etc.

Yes, all of it is in masks, but I’d rather life ticked on in this way than not at all.

^^That should read school full-time since the beginning of February.

You know what’s been most amazing here about everyone including kids wearing masks to keep Covid rates down? My friends with loved ones in care homes have been allowed to visit them, and to take their children in.

It is all about control...and not infection control. What have we turned out schools into . One way systems, just look ahead, wear a mask, sanitise your hands, no interaction with your peers, no games. How anyone can think this is right is beyond me. Schools should be places to be inspired, to communicate, to be creative, to have fun, to learn, where the shy are brought out of themselves, where the disabled are included. We re creating something akin to a prison camp.

@loulouljh

It is all about control...and not infection control. What have we turned out schools into . One way systems, just look ahead, wear a mask, sanitise your hands, no interaction with your peers, no games. How anyone can think this is right is beyond me. Schools should be places to be inspired, to communicate, to be creative, to have fun, to learn, where the shy are brought out of themselves, where the disabled are included. We re creating something akin to a prison camp.

Oh give over!

Sorry, no, not buying the idea that encouraging your child not to wear a mask is 'brave'. It really isn't.

My friend lives in Spain, her children have been wearing masks for some time without a problem. The defence of mask-dodging here just sounds like a new variation of English exceptionalism.

@palacegirl77 The original use of face masks was to help protect surgical wounds from staff-generated nasal and oral bacteria. Face masks and coverings reduce egress. A well fitted mask also reduces ingress.

Have you ever managed to discover Google Scholar? It is great, full of scientific studies that could answer so many of your questions. scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=2021&q=face+mask+effectiveness+&btnG=

Many of these studies are preprints or e-prints, maybe with your vast knowledge of mask inefficiency you could apply to peer review some of them.

Results indicate that fabric face masks blocked between 62.6% and 87.1% of fine particles, whereas surgical masks protected against an average of 78.2% of fine particles. N95 masks blocked 99.6% of fine particles. Survey respondents tended to underestimate the effectiveness of masks, especially fabric masks. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.27.21250645v1

In other news 100% of SNP voter are happy to have the vaccine compared to only 50% of Farrage's new party supporters.

Thats true, although you could also say that maybe all those parents too scared to send their kids to school WITHOUT the masks should keep their kids at home so the rest of us can get with life now the vulnerable are vaccinated.

Firstly, 'the vulnerable' (what a delightful phrase) are not all vaccinated. And secondly, maybe we could try your approach, but I have a feeling you'll find there aren't any teachers, so...

@loulouljh

It is all about control...and not infection control. What have we turned out schools into . One way systems, just look ahead, wear a mask, sanitise your hands, no interaction with your peers, no games. How anyone can think this is right is beyond me. Schools should be places to be inspired, to communicate, to be creative, to have fun, to learn, where the shy are brought out of themselves, where the disabled are included. We re creating something akin to a prison camp.

So true. The average comprehensive is now indistinguishable from a gulag, in fact, I've heard that prisoners in North Korea feel sorry for English teenagers.

The science has shown that mask-wearing indoors significantly reduces transmission.

The thing is mask-wearing does not reduce transmission significantly - the impact is small to moderate based on low to moderate evidence. Several US studies from last summer had to be rescinded once we got the data over the longer term period. It is not something that gets air time in the US because the mask question got completely politicised:

www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/covid-19-face-masks-community-first-update.pdf

I know I sound like a broken record but I think we need to face facts and be honest with ourselves. Masks do help on the margin but potential benefits from reduction in transmission need to be assessed against potential negative impact (e.g. on children's mental health). The latter may be small but so is the former. We may also be convinced that "children are OK wearing masks all day" but let us ask ourselves once again - are they? I look at some of my friends neurotically sanitising their hands every five minutes and keep asking myself whether we fully appreciate the extent of mental damage brought on by the pandemic.

@SaskiaRembrandt

Thats true, although you could also say that maybe all those parents too scared to send their kids to school WITHOUT the masks should keep their kids at home so the rest of us can get with life now the vulnerable are vaccinated.

Firstly, 'the vulnerable' (what a delightful phrase) are not all vaccinated. And secondly, maybe we could try your approach, but I have a feeling you'll find there aren't any teachers, so...

My approach is if they wear masks they need to proper masks, medical grade and used correctly. It's really not that maverick really.

ECDC review I linked includes the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis covering 155 studies and statements on masks. It was published on February 15, 2021.

My approach is if they wear masks they need to proper masks, medical grade and used correctly. It's really not that maverick really.

Which is a perfectly valid point. Why didn't you say that instead of telling us about how astonishingly brave it would be for your daughter to become a mask-dodger?

@loulouljh

It is all about control...and not infection control. What have we turned out schools into . One way systems, just look ahead, wear a mask, sanitise your hands, no interaction with your peers, no games. How anyone can think this is right is beyond me. Schools should be places to be inspired, to communicate, to be creative, to have fun, to learn, where the shy are brought out of themselves, where the disabled are included. We re creating something akin to a prison camp.

Control? I'll send you some tin foil.

@loulouljh

It is all about control...and not infection control. What have we turned out schools into . One way systems, just look ahead, wear a mask, sanitise your hands, no interaction with your peers, no games. How anyone can think this is right is beyond me. Schools should be places to be inspired, to communicate, to be creative, to have fun, to learn, where the shy are brought out of themselves, where the disabled are included. We re creating something akin to a prison camp.

My kids are at school wearing masks, being inspired, communicating, creative, having fun, learning, being brought out of themselves and the disabled are being included.

UK kids sitting mask-free at home in their bedrooms are... what? Having the time of their lives? UK kids' houses under lockdown are more like prison camps than anything my kids are experiencing.

@wintertravel1980 have you also read this one? arxiv.org/abs/2102.04882

Face masks have been widely used as a protective measure against COVID-19. However, pre-pandemic experimental studies have produced mixed results regarding their effectiveness against respiratory viruses, leading to confusion over whether masks protect the wearer, or only those with whom the wearer interacts. Such confusion may have contributed to organizations such as the WHO and CDC initially not recommending that the general public wear masks. Here, we show that studies that did not find surgical masks to be effective were under-powered to such an extent that even if masks were 100% effective, the studies in question would still have been unlikely to find a statistically significant effect. Thus, such studies should not be interpreted as providing evidence against masks.

I know I sound like a broken record but I think we need to face facts and be honest with ourselves. Masks do help on the margin but potential benefits from reduction in transmission need to be assessed against potential negative impact (e.g. on children's mental health). The latter may be small but so is the former. We may also be convinced that "children are OK wearing masks all day" but let us ask ourselves once again - are they? I look at some of my friends neurotically sanitising their hands every five minutes and keep asking myself whether we fully appreciate the extent of mental damage brought on by the pandemic.

I agree - in the UK there appears to be very little attention to the extent of the mental damage caused by the pandemic.

So let's see - what's more damaging to a child's mental health?

Wearing a mask, going to school with their friends, taking part in sports, being allowed to see loved ones.

Not wearing a mask and sitting at home alone in lockdown.

Masks do help on the margin but potential benefits from reduction in transmission need to be assessed against potential negative impact (e.g. on children's mental health). The latter may be small but so is the former. Not being able to go to school at all is FAR more likely to negatively affect their mental health than having a piece of fabric on their face for a few hours a day.

We may also be convinced that "children are OK wearing masks all day" but let us ask ourselves once again - are they? yes thanks. They've been wearing them for 7 months and it's not a big deal.

Have your children been wearing them at school (and everywhere else) for months? No, right? So you don't actually know how it would be for them. Mine (and millions of their fellow cistizens) have been and it's fine. It's not an issue.