Karen Vaites Profile picture
Jan 28 6 tweets 3 min read
.@michelleinbklyn calls for end of mandatory masking in schools post-Omicron, citing @ElissaPerkins @ErinBromage and recent writing on limited mask efficacy + costs to kids.

Making this the indisputable “Now It Can Be Said” week.

nytimes.com/2022/01/28/opi…
We had foreshadowing in her last column, which began talking about the harms of masking.

I’ll say again what I said the other day (thread)…

I hope @michelleinbklyn is connecting dots btwn voter sentiments and the *timing of* these Now It Can Be Said moments.
The often-misogynist conversation about parent advocacy for school reopening has been oversimplified to “Parents get angry with leaders when schools close.”

In fact, it’s more nuanced. Many have attempted rational tradeoff conversations for years & been rebuffed.

This part:
Disaffected Democrats are folks who’ve been trying to talk about this evidence for months, out of concern for kids/wellness.

We have watched as evidence-based perspectives failed to gain traction w/ media & many leaders. Which prolonged harms to kids.

That’s gonna erode trust.
Including trust in Weingarten/Pringle. There’s a connection to the critiques of @michelleinbklyn’s own redemption columns for those leaders.

The fact is, none of the evidence in this week’s wave of Now It Can Be Said discourse is new.

Some of us have attempted to center it.
And, of course, met resistance/political obstacles/cancellation for doing so.

You can’t really understand the Youngkin election, shifts in parent attitudes, etc. if you don’t look into those weeds.

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More from @karenvaites

Jan 28
No organization has been more responsible for the shameful treatment of children during the pandemic than @AmerAcadPeds.

When we are deciding who gets a pass on their pandemic misses and who deserves extremely hard questions, AAP needs to go firmly in the latter camp.
Don’t forget that @AmerAcadPeds came out for school reopening in June, 2020… then reversed themselves less than 2 weeks later. They went on to stay silent as school closures dragged on for more than a year for kids in some regions.

Still no explanation for the reversal.
Now we see @AmerAcadPeds citing weak evidence for continued masking of kids:
Read 6 tweets
Jan 28
Now It Can Be Said…

The Last Frontier Edition

sfchronicle.com/opinion/openfo…
As @JenniferSey put it, “When the @sfchronicle is asking… the end is nigh.”

And they are asking, all right.
Wow... I just read it, and @writingblock knocked it out of the park.

I can’t even pull quote it.

For all hitting the pay wall...
Read 5 tweets
Jan 28
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but…

Every communication doesn’t need to be (yet another) vaccination campaign!

Seriously, how odd is this critique? Does he write newspapers asking why they don’t put vaccination on the front page every day?
Further…

Is there anyone on the planet who doesn’t know that public health folks 👍 vaccines?

I can’t drive across town without hearing a public health ad for vaccines on the radio.

The whole point of the #UrgencyOfNormal conversation is that vaccination has become the only+
conversation that PH officials seem to be having.

All other risks and health/wellness costs are ignored, as if reducing COVID cases *in an Omicron age* is the only worthy health goal.

He’s proving the point of the imbalance in the discourse with this critique.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 28
And then there were 250.

In 1.5 days, two hundred fifty health professionals sign onto the open call to restore normalcy for US kids.

Details:
@drlucymcbride @DrScottBalsitis #UrgencyOfNormal

link.medium.com/tgoioHMwanb
There are plenty of other threads out there you can read to get into The Great Debates RE flu seasons, etc.

I’d rather ask you to listen to the authors.

@kwadwo777 is 🎯.

It shouldn’t be an act of bravery to put data that’s reported in the @nytimes +

into a PDF, but sadly, it apparently is.

The points in that above video are so key.

It is not easy to take a stand when there is angst, fear, trolling, mud-slinging.

And yet – someone has to speak for kids.

“There’s no easy way around this except leading by example.”

Facts.
Read 12 tweets
Jan 26
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?
Read 12 tweets

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