Now that the COVID pandemic is behind us, we must thoughtfully evaluate what happened during this unprecedented time and prudently consider what should be done if a similar crisis ever happens again. One of the major issues that emerged during this challenging period was the mandatory wearing of face masks in schools.
A crucial bill has been proposed in the State Legislature this year (HB1093) that would prohibit school boards from ever again implementing any policy requiring the wearing of face masks.
As a member of the House Education Committee, I heard some emotional testimony last month at the hearing for HB1093. One parent described how her child was so psychologically traumatized that he developed nervous ticks due to the stress of mask-wearing. According to numerous teachers and parents, some children suffered such great anxiety that they were paralyzed with fear and could not speak. Mask mandates created an academic culture of fear and divisiveness which caused anxiety and hindered learning. Teachers explained the difficulties of working in such an emotionally negative climate and lamented that many students fell behind academically while also suffering emotionally.
During the hearing, I corroborated what the other witnesses had to say not by describing my personal experience but by sharing what I had learned about face masks from extensively reading medical journal articles and other sources providing information from medical experts. This research included a Cochrane Institute study last year which concluded that “wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of … COVID-19 like illness compared to not wearing masks.” Another article recently published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood concluded, “We fail to find any evidence of benefit from masking children…child mask mandates fail a basic risk-benefit analysis. Recommending child masking …is unsupported by current scientific data and inconsistent with accepted ethical norms.”
We want to thank Rep Arlene Quaratiello for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
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Overall, I found that reasonable doubts had clearly been raised by reputable sources regarding the effectiveness of mask-wearing. Dr. Harvey Risch, Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology at Yale, had compared wearing masks as a virus deterrent to “putting up a chain link fence and hoping that it blocks mosquitoes.” Surprisingly, Dr. Anthony Fauci, in a February 5th, 2020 e-mail, wrote, “the typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.”
Not only did my research suggest that masks might possibly be ineffective but also revealed the probability of physical harm caused by toxic chemicals contained in the masks themselves including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), phthalates, microplastics and nanoparticles. Masks are also suspected by some experts to cause a condition known as MIES—mask-induced exhaustion syndrome. Considering all of this reasonable doubt, don’t you think that wearing a mask should be a choice rather than a requirement? More specifically, should school board members, who are generally not medical experts, ever arbitrarily mandate the wearing of facemasks?
HB1093 will not stop anyone who wants to wear a mask from doing so. Those who believe that face masks are effective can certainly keep on wearing them, and parents who want their kids to wear masks could still send them to school wearing them. Logically, these people should also believe that their masks will protect them and their children from those who choose not to wear them.
The House recently passed HB1093. Now it goes to the Senate where its passage would relieve school board members from having to determine controversial face mask policies while also giving parents the freedom to choose whether or not their children wear masks.