Karen Vaites Profile picture
Jan 19 11 tweets 4 min read
A cultural reflection:

I’ve watched as parents who advocated for school reopening – initially w/ masks (based on early assumptions RE efficacy) have received more chilly reception after later questioning evidence RE masks in schools.

Then this month, @CDCgov sounded like us.🤔
When @davidzweig wrote this still-essential piece on the lack of Randomized Clinical Trials of masks in schools…

Parents were all:

“Well, those $2.99 Old Navy masks slipping down our kids’ faces could definitely have some shortcomings.” 🤷‍♀️

nymag.com/intelligencer/…
Suddenly in December, White House BFF Leana Wen is calling cloth masks facial decorations, and by January…

Now It Can Be Said.
And hoo boy I took some grief when I wrote this thread, suggesting that masks interfere with reading instruction.

(Which I have known all along, but even for me, It Could Only Be Said after I had real Q’s about mask efficacy...)
And folks were big mad when moms posted this article…

Because “it’s just one speech pathology practice! This proves nothing about risk to language development!”

And then………

wpbf.com/article/palm-b…
… turns out the @CDCgov thought those concerns were legit.

👇👇👇👇👇
For raising questions that the @CDCgov would raise within months, I’ve been called every kind of pejorative.

My favorite is “anti-masker.”

As if one’s position on masks should remain immutable, regardless of context (environment, age, risk profile, downstream impact, etc).
Open Schools advocates have been proven accurate time and again… in fact, our positions arguably signal the consensus-slash-CDC position by 3-9 months.

Given this, we have to ask…

Why did so many dismiss and denounce the canaries in the coal mine?
Folks wanna shoot the messengers, but…
This thread was about evolved thinking on masks in schools; @davidzweig rightly notes that we could write it about many things.

Kids ≠ superspreaders, school reopening impact on transmission, failures of hybrid model, 3 vs 6 foot distancing, hospitalization for vs with, +
I began the pandemic as an advocate for masking in schools, based on the evidence from the adult studies. I didn’t really change course until summer ‘21.

This study was the tipping point. I remain surprised that it hasn’t had more attention.

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More from @karenvaites

Jan 19
Remember that time that schools reopened across the US in fall, 2021… and the lack of a surge debunked the myths about risks of school reopening?

Now we have the Omicron edition:
And will you look at that decline in NYC since schools reopened!

<swoon>
Read 4 tweets
Jan 18
Did you know the @CDCgov changed the mask guidance a few months back, to call for cloth masks with clear panels for children learning to read, among other cases related to speech and language development + special needs?

See:
cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…

I have feelings about this.
Looks like a September update.

Which is interesting timing; speech pathologists have been talking about the need for masks with clear panels since early in the pandemic.

I mean…

Let’s talk about why none of us knew about the change.

The @CDCgov coming out to finally acknowledge that masks impede children’s reading & speech development would seem important, no?

You’d think @CDCDirector would broadcast. Or at least we’d see tweets.

Anyone heard a peep?
Read 11 tweets
Jan 17
Every word of @jonathanchait's latest.

Progressives (in many regions) allowed / enabled the greatest domestic policy error of our lifetimes.

And very few are willing to publicly own that fact.

THAT's the source of the dismay and the eroding trust.

nymag.com/intelligencer/…
I won’t soon forget that in the Great Debate between @ClaraJeffery and @NateSilver538, Jeffery was basically erasing last year’s school closure history.

Fact check: 53% of schools were closed in 1st week of Jan ‘21, and 37% hadn’t yet been opened (source: @BurbioCalendar).
US children lost historic amounts of school & became a global outlier among wealthy nations.

Pundits on the left just want to talk about how most schools are open now.

Guess what? Your actions 21 months into pandemic aren't the ones you'll be judged on.

Read 7 tweets
Jan 16
Oh look, another study – same as the other studies – showing that COVID spreads far less in schools than other environments!
I don’t even get excited anymore. I know that a) we have piles of evidence showing this already, and…

b) Anyone who didn’t get this memo already – alternately known as Team Remote Learning and Team Motivated Reasoning – will find a reason to blow off this one, too.
“But this is pre-Omicron!”

“But long COVID”

“But the immunocompromised!”

“But their immunocompromised grandparents’ neighbors!”

“But future variants!”

And no one even meeds to have evidence for any of it! Just the virtue of A Concern.
Read 6 tweets
Jan 15
I talk a lot about the silencing effect of the toxic reopening discourse.

This has affected teacher voices, too.

The many excellent educators I know are silent on reopening / effect of closures. And y’all see what some of your colleagues say.

It’s affecting perceptions.
Perceptions of public education are changing… and not only because of the perceived lack of reliability / lack of child-centering due to closures.

The way the loud voices talk on here is a real problem.

And I’ll be honest, every day I log on and I have to consciously work…
… to think about the MANY educators I know personally, and how we talk/DM about kids and closures, to keep myself from getting cynical about some of the educators in my replies.

I have met thousands of Eds and seen great teaching. I count many Eds as friends and advisors.+
Read 8 tweets
Jan 11
"We've seen a 364% patient increase in patient referrals of babies and toddlers from pediatricians and parents” for speech delays.

Don’t tell me that masks on children are a cost-free intervention.

wpbf.com/article/palm-b…
Also, if this is what a speech therapist is reporting in Florida… imagine the situation in New York, where masks are required in day care centers.
And to everyone who says I’m putting the emphasis on the wrong thing:

The article highlights the impact of adult masking on kids’ speech.

Kids in my state, where toddlers are masked, have two forms of risk, not just this one:
Read 6 tweets

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