Thread by @karenvaites

Huge props to @michelleinbklyn for noting the change to the @CDCgov mask guidance for developing kids... marking the second time we have seen this important change in print!

Also, I agree with virtually all of her column, with one critical callout...

nytimes.com/2022/01/24/opi…

The only big difference between @michelleinbklyn and I is that she still believes masks work in schools.

Alas...

The weak evidence for this has been clear for a while. Start here for @davidzweig's reporting that really advanced awareness on this point.

nymag.com/intelligencer/…

I advocated for masks in schools for the full 20-21 school year, based on what we saw in adult studies.

By summer ‘21, I couldn’t ignore the growing sense that we didn’t have evidence for it.

Then this came out.

@michelleinbklyn, can you tell age at which masks were reqd?

https://twitter.com/apsmunro/status/1420765698746322949

The age is 6. But, you can't see any change in transmission at age 6.

You can just see that young kids transmit less.

Both of these made me seriously question if masks were doing anything... and the evidence never got any stronger.

So... if I still thought masks reduced transmission, I'd be just like @michelleinbklyn. Kinda feeling like we need to blame the pandemic.

Instead, I am one of the people wondering why we keep doing evidence-light things that hit kids. Last year: school closures. This year...

Silent lunches. Masks on kids learning to speak and to read (and I know more than most about how this affects reading skills; 🧵).

Masked speech therapy for toddlers which is 🤯.

Freezing lunches on playgrounds. Parents restricted from schools. Youth athletics curtailed.

https://twitter.com/karenvaites/status/1421576079861485573

The infuriating part = the realization that kids are bearing this burden *and it isn't doing anything to slow COVID's roll.*

Once you realize that, and you realize that PH types probably knew this before you, or could have... THAT explains the loss of trust, more than anything.

More and more voices are speaking out about the weak evidence base for school masking.

Here's @JeanneNoble18 @MSmelkinsonPhD @LeslieBienen.

As more people realize that the evidence has been weak all along... what will that do to trust, I wonder?

https://twitter.com/TheAtlantic/status/1486362568927203328?s=20

Also, if you don’t understand these nuances, you can misread the moment / parent attitudes.

If masks were an effective mitigation, and a bunch of parents were just “over it” & OK with letting COVID spread faster… it’s easier to make value judgments about that attitude.

But…

… If instead, groups of parents figured out that a harmful mitigation wasn’t working ahead of the rest of the population… and they lost trust in elected leaders precisely because electeds were slow to get a clue… well, that’s a different dynamic.

Younkin swing voters weren’t+

just mad about their kids missing out on school.

👉 They *lost faith* in elected leaders who allowed ineffective and harmful policies to persist long after parents could see the ineffectiveness and the harms.

There’s a real difference btwn the 2, and since @michelleinbklyn

wrote about the Youngkin election, and everyone’s debating the medium-term political impact of this moment, this seems like an important distinction.