Unmask movement long on rhetoric, short on facts
Scientists rebuff claims that have fueled protests against mask mandates in schools
“What people need to understand and weigh is, ‘Will this personal choice affect somebody else?’
At that point it’s no longer personal.”
Despite a dramatic increase in statewide COVID-19 cases and growing evidence that the delta variant is highly transmissible by children, the movement to end mask requirements in schools is continuing to gain momentum in Connecticut.
The Unmask Our Kids CT Facebook page following has nearly doubled to more than 4,000 over the past month, while a private group has close to 12,000 members. Anti-mask protests are taking place across the state, most recently shutting down Bristol and Region 17 school board meetings.
The movement has been noisy as well. Gov. Ned Lamont, who has ordered all students must start the school year wearing masks, had to be escorted by security out of a Cheshire school Thursday, after a few dozen parents disrupted a backto-school event with state officials. Another protest against Connecticut’s indoor mask requirements for students, staff and visitors was held Saturday outside the Capitol in Hartford.
But a Courant analysis of the arguments used by the official groups and their supporters shows the unmask movement is long on rhetoric but short on facts. From issues ranging from personal freedom to the effectiveness of masks, experts and scientists rebuffed many of
— Dr. Ulysses Wu, Hartford HealthCare infectious disease specialist
the claims that continue to gain momentum on social media.
Here are the key points:
Should masks be a personal choice?
Unmask Our Kids CT founder Jonathan Johnson said the group is primarily advocating for parents to have the right to choose whether or not their children wear masks in schools, rather than having a statewide mandate.
Johnson acknowledged the updated U.S. Centers for Disease and Control Prevention guidelines that advise all students, staff and visitors should wear masks inside school buildings regardless of vaccination status, but said most states have not turned that recommendation into a statewide mandate.
At least 15 states, including Connecticut, and the District of Columbia are enforcing statewide mask requirements inside schools, while at least eight governors in other states are trying to ban them, according to Education Week. Most states are leaving it up to local districts to issue their own mask rules.
“The CDC can recommend whatever it wants,” said Johnson. “If the state government is going to create a mandate out of that, that’s one choice. If we’re going to allow parents to take those recommendations and do what’s right for their family, that’s another choice.”
But Dr. Ulysses Wu, an infectious disease specialist at Hartford HealthCare, said the concept of personal choice is very different in the context of a public health crisis — where the decision one person makes can easily affect another.
“What people need to understand and weigh is, ‘Will this personal choice affect somebody else?’ At that point it’s no longer personal, it’s a societal choice, and that is a concept I think a lot of people struggle with.
“First of all, there’s the individual consequence to the child themselves: They could get COVID, and they could die. We know pediatric cases are rising exponentially across the country, we know hospitalizations are rising exponentially across the country, and we know deaths are rising exponentially across the country.
“They’re not immune.”
Even children who experience mild cases of COVID-19 can infect others, he added.
“It’s not like we’re getting COVID because it’s just out there. We’re getting COVID from other people, and that is the secondary consequence of not masking,” Wu said.
Do children get sick from COVID-19?
Children’s hospitals around the country are reporting a rise in coronavirus patient numbers, with the highly contagious delta variant increasing chances of infection.
Public health officials acknowledge that available state data shows children are less likely to die from COVID-19 than older people. “At this time,” the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a recent update, “it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is uncommon among children.”
But physicians remain concerned about the rapid spread of the virus among children over the past month, as well as the unknown long-term consequences of the pandemic on children. The academy reported that weekly case numbers among children in the U.S. have increased more than fourfold in a month, going from about 38,000 during the week ending July 22 to more than 180,000 during the week ending Aug. 19.
The Connecticut department of Public Health reported Thursday a total of more than 22,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases among children ages 0 to 9 and more than 40,000 confirmed cases among children ages 10-19 since the start of the pandemic. There has been one confirmed COVID-19 death in the 0-9 age group and four deaths in the 10-19 age group.
“Thankfully, we have had no deaths here at Yale New Haven Health among any of our pediatric patients, but we have admitted more than 180 patients under the age of 18 ... so this is not a trivial disease,” said Dr. Thomas Balcezak, chief clinical officer for Yale New Haven Health.
“There are kids that can become quite ill from both COVID and also this multisystem inflammatory disease that children can get, sometimes for six weeks after they come down with COVID-19.”
Balcezak also noted that children under 12 are still ineligible to receive coronavirus vaccines. As of Thursday afternoon, the state health department reported that about 51% of children ages 12-15 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, along with about 58% of residents ages 16-24.
Are masks ineffective or unhealthy?
A number of anti-mask websites, including Unmask The Kids and the Children’s Health Defense, cite studies and editorials that discuss concerns about masks being ineffective or having negative impacts on children’s breathing ability.
Wu, the infectious disease specialist at Hartford Healthcare, acknowledged that there are many smaller research studies available online that raise such points, but said they are not backed up by major, peer-reviewed studies that have been accepted by the medical community as science.
“Does [mask-wearing] impede airflow? I think it does, but I think it’s minimal,” he said. “Is it uncomfortable? Sure, to some people. Is there a medical reason to not wear a mask? There are no contraindications to wearing a mask.”
As for the issue of the effectiveness of masks in slowing the spread of coronavirus, there is little debate in the medical community.
Balcezak, chief clinical officer for Yale New Haven Health, said there is “no doubt about the science behind wearing masks,” and that more than a dozen studies have demonstrated that wearing masks in crowds prevents COVID19 transmission.
Earlier in the summer, Wu said arguments that schools do not need masks because of low transmission rates last year “do not make any sense.”
“Transmission was low in schools because we wore masks and had social distancing,” he said. “If we go to a point where we don’t have masks and we don’t have social distancing and — guess what — we don’t have vaccines that are available [for children under 12], transmission is going to occur.”
In July, the CDC recommended that fully vaccinated students and staff did not have to wear masks inside school buildings. But the agency reversed its guidelines less than a month later, citing new evidence on the highly infectious delta variant between people fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Since Aug. 4, the agency has recommended “universal indoor masking for all students, staff, teachers and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.”
Do masks interfere with development?
A number of online communities and petitions against school mask mandates in the U.S. describe mask-wearing during the pandemic as harmful to children’s socialization, psychological development and mental health.
“Nobody understands the mental health of a child better than a parent most times. They can see their kid suffering,” said Johnson, the Unmask Our Kids CT founder.
Dr. Laura Saunders, a psychologist at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital, said the impact of mask-wearing on children varies according to their age, but that any possible effects are more than outweighed by the real danger of COVID-19.
“High school age children have had many years of socialization and interaction where, while inconvenient, mask-wearing will not be very detrimental,” she said.
“When it comes to elementary-age children, we know that being able to look at and read facial expressions — which are a critical component of non-verbal communication — is hindered with mask-wearing.”
“However, we know there are a number of opportunities outside of school [building] situations, where kids get to take off their masks, whether it’s in a sports activity, or at home,” Saunders said. Such breaks can offset “any of the difficulties in recognizing emotions and reading facial expressions.”
Saunders said the negative impacts of the pandemic on children’s mental health are “multifactorial” and “it’s not just about wearing masks,” as isolation and distancing have contributed to increased anxiety and worsening depression among children.
“Wearing masks is the outward symbol that life is not how it used to be,” she said. “To some degree, we need to follow these guidelines — we need to wear masks, get vaccinated, have some space in between us — to stem the tide of COVID. So, given the guidelines from the state and the CDC, we need to find ways to make the best of a situation.”