Desperate to talk about anything other than the disaster in Afghanistan he created, President Joe Biden emerged from hiding for 15 minutes last week to accuse Republican governors falsely of trying to ban masks in schools.
No mention was made of a much more effective way of preventing COVID from being spread in schools — mandating vaccines for teachers.
“Unfortunately, as we’ve seen throughout this pandemic, some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures — that is, children wearing masks in school — into political disputes for their own political gain,” Biden said without so much as a hint of self-awareness. “Some are even trying to take power away from local educators by banning masks in school.”
That is completely false. No governor is trying to ban the use of masks in schools. What governors in eight states are trying to do is give parents the option of deciding whether or not their child can attend school without a mask.
“We just need to finish the job with science, with facts, and with confidence,” Biden said. But there simply is no science that measures the efficacy of mask mandates on children under 12 in a school environment. There is evidence that mask mandates can reduce the spread of COVID among the general public, but as the pandemic has clearly shown so far, children under 12 are not the general public. And there are significant trade-offs to consider when weighing a mask mandate for young children.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recognizes these trade-offs. Its COVID guidance recommends masks for students 12 and up but acknowledges that children younger than 12 “may have a lower tolerance to wearing masks for extended periods of time, and may fail to use the masks properly.” The agency concludes that the “use of face masks is recommended for teachers” but “it is not recommended for students.”
Is the ECDC trying to turn “public safety measures into political disputes for their own political gain” by issuing guidance against masks for students under 12? Of course not. It is just trying to work through this very difficult issue for which we have little hard data.
But Biden has never been one to let uncertainty on an issue get in the way of scoring political points. Later in his speech, Biden said he called school superintendents in Florida and Arizona to “thank them for doing the right thing and requiring masks in their schools.” One superintendent reportedly responded by saying their guiding principle was always “students first.”
But if students are the schools’ first priority, then why isn’t that same school district mandating vaccines for teachers?
Although we don’t have much data on the effectiveness of masks on children under 12, we have tons of data on the effectiveness of vaccines on adults. And the science says they are highly effective.
So, why don’t these schools forcing children under 12 to wear masks also force teachers to get vaccinated? Why isn’t Biden calling school superintendents and asking them to mandate vaccines for teachers?
The answer is politics. The teachers unions oppose vaccine mandates for teachers, and so, schools are wary to impose them. That’s why Biden is silent on the issue. He doesn’t have permission from his political masters to raise this issue. That’s just how scientific his approach is.
There are no easy answers on what policies governments should adopt to deal with COVID. Lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates all come with trade-offs. In a country as big as the United States, it makes sense to let states and localities set policies that fit their communities and their values. What won’t help anyone is for Biden to keep using COVID as a distraction from his disastrous handling of Afghanistan and a chance to score cheap political points against his potential 2024 rivals.
