You don’t need to drive far from home to see lawn signs calling to “Unmask Our Kids."
This fall, schools will be open across the country. Some districts are requiring masks, some aren’t. Which side of the debate is right? trib.al/bRGAPoW
Although we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the harm done by Covid-19, we’ve done little to assess the harm that masks can do.
A recent letter in JAMA raised awareness about a crucial issue: Our kids are breathing air that’s full of carbon dioxide trib.al/bRGAPoW
Initially, the argument for masks was that they kept the wearer from infecting others. Nowadays evidence of the benefits is plentiful.
What the JAMA letter argues is that in considering whether to mask schoolchildren, we must weigh the benefits and risks trib.al/bRGAPoW
The authors, six European researchers, measured CO2 levels in the air inhaled and exhaled by 45 children with a mean age of 10.7. They took readings without face masks, then with face masks of two different types: surgical masks and filtration masks trib.al/bRGAPoW
The results are worrisome.
After just three minutes of mask wearing, the carbon dioxide content of the air inside the masks — the air the children were breathing — was on the order of 13 times what previous research suggests is safe trib.al/bRGAPoW
If the average school day is six hours long, the children would be masked for close to 360 minutes.
And beyond the classroom, parents still struggle to decide when to mask their children and for how long trib.al/bRGAPoW
It’s odd that the issue has had so little public discussion.
Studies published earlier in the pandemic already pointed to potentially higher CO2 levels in health-care workers because they were rebreathing the same CO2 they’ve previously exhaled trib.al/bRGAPoW
The masks seem to be trapping what the lungs are trying to get rid of.
Given that other studies have found similar problems in adults, we should surely be spending more time studying the effect on children trib.al/bRGAPoW
That’s not to say we should accept uncritically the conclusions of the JAMA letter. As the authors admit, the study has its limitations.
Moreover, the experiment was performed in a laboratory; it’s not a study of similar cohorts in the real world trib.al/bRGAPoW
By the same token, mask supporters shouldn’t pounce on these limitations as reason to ignore the study entirely.
We all share the goal of doing what’s best for our children. It’s important to get this right trib.al/bRGAPoW
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Credit Suisse's new vision for its employees’ work-life balance is the latest example of what’s becoming an all-too-common theme: large employers virtue signaling that they’re now all hip and flexible when it comes to how and where their people work trib.al/cXVlbF3
It’s clear that very few companies have actually committed to new ways of working that can be easily implemented or measured.
Many have pledged to offer more flexibility without specifying who can actually take advantage of it and how frequently trib.al/xrJOC5G
The danger is that the new flexible working rules might not be practical for many employees, and companies will have to backtrack on what has been interpreted as a commitment to lots of remote work.
That’s a breeding ground for intra-office dissent trib.al/xrJOC5G
Would you spend $1.3 million on a dilapidated, crumbling house?
Someone already has. In New Zealand, one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world, quality and price are not obstacles to the property boom trib.al/lFnLdGd
Property markets around the world are running hot in similar ways to New Zealand’s.
128 out of 150 cities saw prices rise year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021, with 43 growing at double-digit rates — more than twice the amount in the previous year trib.al/Bc1xtoH
A genuine economic recovery is underway, driven by $5.4 trillion of extra savings worldwide.
Aspiring “upsizers” are searching for space and long-term financial investments, especially among aging millennials who see a shot at outpacing rich boomers trib.al/Bc1xtoH
How many times have you said to yourself: “If I could only earn $X, then I’d be happy.”
It raises the question: How much money is enough to truly feel wealthy? trib.al/OLSKdYi
People’s views on wealth have changed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
➡️ In 2020 respondents said $2.6 million was needed to be wealthy
➡️ In 2021, respondents said $1.9 million was needed to be wealthy trib.al/vs5UGZF
What it takes to feel wealthy is a moving target.
Although it’s wise to think about how to grow your personal wealth, you can spare yourself a lot of anxiety by focusing on how to find contentment trib.al/vs5UGZF
A month after Kristallnacht, @davidjshipley’s father’s family left Berlin for the U.S.
As Jews, their time as Germans had to come to an end, to put it charitably. The family went first to NYC before settling in Oregon, a distant corner of a foreign land bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-…
Their relentless desire to become Americans, to join up with the country that had saved their lives, was brought home to @davidjshipley recently when he stumbled on Julian Shipley’s — his grandfather — study guide for his citizenship exam bloom.bg/2TDbG1o
@davidjshipley It wasn’t until the 1950s that the U.S. put in place a standardized citizenship exam.
Before then, applicants went before a judge, who quizzed them. Trick questions were forbidden, but everything else was fair game bloom.bg/2TDbG1o