Thread by @FreedomFriesInc

I've always supported school choice initiatives on their merits, which can be substantial. But my ideal world would be one in which everyone chose to wear a mask where doing so supported the physical and mental health of others around them during a pandemic such as this.

https://twitter.com/SchoolChoice22/status/1429576192877727749

Parents do not have total rights over the health choices for their children, even in the USA.

Making a school "mask optional" at this time would mean it is pointless for any child to wear one. They reduce the droplet spread from a Covid carrier to everyone else in the room.

A child's health status is not protected by that child wearing a mask. It is protected by OTHER children wearing a mask.

Any genuine concern about the breathing of the mask wearer can be dealt with separately. The issue is simple: Mask wearing slows the spread of Covid.

If the high transmissibility of the Delta variant had been consistently the case since the start of the pandemic, there would be less confusion out there about the pros and cons of mask wearing.

Masks work, but you have to be clear on which situations you are talking about.

Unless we've been in strict isolation for the past 14 days, we cannot be sure we are not infectious with Covid. Therefore there is a need to wear a mask, so we aren't inadvertently emitting droplets into the air, where they can land on the face of others walking through that air.

If the droplets land on the eyes, that can lead to a Covid infection. Mucus membranes allow the droplets to stick, more than skin does. They can also land on clothing, hair, and shoes. Hand washing is necessary but not sufficient. Containing them behind a mask makes sense.

Coughing and sneezing will send the droplets further away from the person. But even talking and singing can distribute these microscopic droplets into the air.

It's clear that masks will do more to contain the droplets than not wearing them will do.

So, masks are a necessary tool among others for reducing the negative physical health consequences of unwittingly spreading the virus to others.

They also reduce the negative mental health consequences, upon others, of you not wearing a mask where needed during this pandemic.

Naturally, if you don't understand why masks are needed at this time, then you likely don't understand what non-use is doing to the mental health of others.

(Justifiable) anxiety & stress over sufficient time is very damaging to a person's health. It can be life threatening.

If you have been given (verifiable) information about why mask use protects the physical and mental health of others, and you still refuse to wear a mask and/or require your kids to wear a mask, then my question to you is "why?"

Why are you making an active choice that is likely to harm others?

If your life and health are not especially at stake in this pandemic, I'm happy for you. You are luckier than the many children and adults who live with this hanging over our heads every day.

I have long term health issues, some of which are readily apparent to others, some of which are not. Before the pandemic, I had to deal with prejudice and a lack of understanding on a near daily basis.

It is much worse now.

This is not about me. It's about me and all the others in every community who know that if we catch Covid, we could be left with permanent damage, or even die from it.

In a school classroom there are some kids like this but also some households with a person like this.

It's not just seniors.

The Delta variant's high transmissibility means a much higher number of cases, and a correspondingly higher number of hospitalizations in every age group, right down to newborns.

No city in the world has sufficient ICU and general beds in it's hospitals to deal with a wave of Delta variant cases AND all the usual cases like heart attacks, strokes, MVAs, workplace accidents and so on, without some otherwise preventable deaths & life-changing health issues.

People were well aware of this concept at the start, when Italy was ravaged by Covid, then Spain, the rest of Europe, & rest of the world.

In parts of Italy they had to ration ICU care and exclude those with a lower chance of survival. No doctor ever wants to have to do that.

Masks and vaccines are necessary but not sufficient. There are no medical treatments for Covid that are safe, effective, and accessible enough to change our need for masks, vaccines, and social distancing in the foreseeable future.

The only therapy approaching a viable option is monoclonal antibody therapy. But this is only available for >12 year olds, and not once SpO2 levels have dropped and supplemental oxygen therapy is needed. It uses up scarce healthcare worker resource, and is not funded everywhere.

Two sources of the above information:

FDA re one of the products: fda.gov/news-events/pr…

One provider's patient info handout: houstonmethodist.org/blog/articles/…

If you have read my tweets above and still don't want to wear a mask in public, when that would be helpful to a large group of children and adults who are already suffering, then I would like to know why.