Less than a year ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the public against wearing surgical N95 masks because of how difficult they make breathing. But now, public health officials want everyone, including young students and toddlers, to wear them as omicron cases spread.
The Washington Post reported this week that CDC officials are gearing up to change its mask guidance to recommend N95 or KN95 masks instead of cloth masks. Some parts of the country have already made this change, including several universities and public school districts:
Just got the announcement that Berkeley Unified School District will demand all students wear N95s all day. Unscientific madness continues to punish our kids.
— Ben Recht (@beenwrekt) January 11, 2022
This policy is misinformed and even cruel. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky herself admitted last year that N95 masks are “very hard to breathe in when you wear them properly.”
“They’re very hard to tolerate when you wear them for long periods of time,” she added. “I have spent a reasonable amount of time in an N95 mask. They’re hard to tolerate all day every day.”
But now we’re to demand that young children, who are not at risk of serious illness from COVID-19 in the first place, wear them all day, every day?
And for what? Medical-grade N95 masks will not protect children from COVID-19 any more than cloth masks because they weren’t designed with children in mind. The Food and Drug Administration has made it clear that “a proper fit [of N95 masks] cannot be achieved on children” because they “are not designed for children.”
In other words, maniacal officials want to force young children to wear a mask known to be more difficult to wear even though this policy will provide very little, if any, public health benefit. They’re just looking for a way to virtue signal about the pandemic and pretend they’re better people because of it, with no care at all for what it might cost children and families.
