The truth about masking children is starting to hit the front page: we never had evidence that it's helpful, and the harms are obvious. 🧵bbc.com/news/health-59…
There are clear negative educational impacts of masking, with the main benefit being making students "feel safe." Alternatively, we could make them feel safe by telling them that the children have always been low-risk and the vaccines work.
UK government report: "there are downsides to face coverings for pupils and students, including detrimental impacts on communication in the classroom"
And yes, masks are particularly challenging for people with disabilities:
And the obvious conclusion: stop masking children. It's an intervention with no clear evidence of benefit, if there is benefit it's incredibly small, and the harms are clear, obvious, and widespread.
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Getting lots of questions on what it means for truly highly vulnerable folks if COVID will eventually infect us all. If that's you, please read this thread.
1: talk to your doctor about your medical conditions + find out how much risk you truly face. I've spoken with many people who think their risk is much higher than it actually is. Hard to gauge risk with all the scary headlines. You may be safer than you think
2: Get fully vaccinated. Wear N95s: don't count on other people's flimsy paper mask to protect you- they do very little, N95s work great. Test early if you get symptoms, and get treatment quick. Paxlovid and Sotrovimab active vs Omicron. You're not powerless. Take heart.
Our disagreements on COVID are now rarely about science; they're differences in values. As such, it's important for scientific experts to recognize that we are not moral experts. Our opinions of what costs and tradeoffs are justified are not more valid than anyone else's. 🧵
People differ in the amount of risk we're willing to accept as part of living. Not because some are paranoid or others are reckless (labels for those we disagree with), but because we have different value systems around risk, and most of all, who gets to make those choices.
Scientists' job is to give people accurate information about what the facts are, because that's where we actually do have expertise. But it gets awfully murky beyond that.
@TracyBethHoeg in Congress today speaking up for our kids. Her statement has everything you need to know about COVID and kids, all in one place. The "abundance of caution" approach did an abundance of harm. We can learn and do better. docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF… 🧵
"Recent data from Public Health England (PHE, 2021) also found that unvaccinated children have a decreased risk of hospitalization when compared with fully vaccinated 40–49 year-olds (3.4/100,000 vs 3.6/100,000 during this 2-week study period)"
"COVID-19 should also be put in the context of other risks. COVID-19 has a lower annual mortality risk to children than motor vehicle accidents, influenza (by this estimate) and, perhaps most importantly for the 5-14 year olds, suicide (Leonhardt, 2021)."
New UK school guidance: "Our priority is for you to deliver face-to-face, high-quality education to all pupils. The evidence is clear that being out of education causes significant harm to educational attainment, life chances, mental and physical health." gov.uk/government/pub…
"Individuals are not required to self-isolate if they live in the same household as someone with COVID-19, or are a close contact of someone with COVID-19, and any of the following apply:
-they are fully vaccinated
-they are below the age of 18 years and 6 months"
"Face coverings are no longer advised for pupils, staff and visitors either in classrooms or in communal areas."