Reopen schools, not the mask debate
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced this week that he and his wife had pulled their children from a summer camp after the group Reopen California Schools drew attention to photos of one of them unmasked and indoors with fellow campers. “Why can his kid be maskless, but not ours?” the group griped in reference to the state’s school mask mandate, arguing that the camp’s maskoptional policy is appropriate.
But if Reopen California Schools really wants to, well, reopen California schools, it shouldn’t be harping on the distracting and counterproductive question of masks. Particularly with children under 12 still ineligible for vaccination against the coronavirus, masks are a sensible precaution in classrooms and other indoor spaces. The Newsoms shouldn’t be sending their children into crowds of other unmasked, unvaccinated children, and neither should anyone else.
Short of vaccination or isolation, masks have been shown to be one of the most effective barriers to transmission. Children should go back to school, and masks can help them do so safely.
Since one can enable the other, it’s difficult to square supporting inperson instruction with opposing masks unless the guiding principle is disregard for everyone’s health. Yes, children are at lower risk from COVID than adults, but they’re not at no risk. Moreover, every transmission of the virus increases the likelihood of further transmission. With the rise of a variant that is thought to spread more effectively and almost half of Californians not fully vaccinated, we should welcome measures that contain the contagion while allowing life to resume.
The backandforth over masks in schools is a microcosm of the broader nonsensical resistance to masks as well as vaccines among those who claim to want a resumption of regular business, which can be facilitated by such protections. The common denominator is either misinformation or mere selfishness — a refusal to endure the slightest discomfort or obligation to others.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Newsom administration both gave into such impulses by loosening mask guidance in the spring, after which infections sharply rebounded. On Wednesday, the state rightly followed the CDC in reversing the error and requiring the precaution indoors, which makes sense as long as the virus is spreading and unvaccinated people are or may be present. Here’s to urging people of all ages in a more adult direction.