In school mask debate, the truth matters
There’s a vigorous debate underway right now, in Connecticut and across the nation, about whether children should be required to wear masks to school when classes resume this month.
Those fighting masking requirements, who have established a statewide organization and local chapters to lobby for their cause, make a number of arguments. They say they inhibit socialization and can make it difficult for children to breathe. They maintain that with COVID-19 rates relatively low in Connecticut, they are no longer needed. They point to the fact that children who contract COVID-19 by and large do not sustain serious effects.
One argument that isn’t part of the official position stated publicly by a number of these groups, but that is surfacing among a number of their supporters, is that masks are not really effective in stopping the transmission of the coronavirus. The particles are too small for a mask to work, they say. There is no evidence that masks prevent transmission of the deadly virus, they argue.
Let’s be clear here: They are wrong. They are spreading untruths in an effort to bolster their cause. There are N-95 and KN-95 masks that have been shown effective in preventing the person wearing the mask from disease, but the main purpose of wearing masks amid a pandemic is to prevent the wearer from spreading the virus.
The evidence is overwhelming. From the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
“At least 10 studies have confirmed the benefit of universal masking in community level analyses. Each analysis demonstrated that, following directives from organizational and political leadership for universal masking, new infections fell significantly.”
“Another 10-site study showed reductions in hospitalization growth rates following mask mandate implementation.”
“A separate series of cross-sectional surveys in the U.S. suggested that a 10% increase in self-reported mask wearing tripled the likelihood of stopping community transmission.”
Not only is the benefit clear to our collective health, the CDC says, but to the economy:
“An economic analysis using U.S. data found that, given these effects, increasing universal masking by 15% could prevent the need for lockdowns and reduce associated losses of up to $1 trillion or about 5% of gross domestic product.”
After more than a year of watching the coronavirus tear through and devastate communities across the globe, it is disturbing that there are those still willing to ignore overwhelming evidence and scientific fact, who believe that if you repeat a lie enough times. it will become the truth.
So we will repeat the truth here: Masks work. They prevent one person who might be infected with COVID-19 from spreading it to another. And like so many other lessons we have learned since early 2020, this is about taking care of each other, not about what is only best for ourselves.
Gov. Ned Lamont made the right call in mandating all students start the school year wearing masks. The highly contagious delta variant is pushing hospitalizations up again, climbing to 348 people as of Wednesday. School districts in states where masking requirements have been lifted or banned are seeing significant outbreaks as students return to school.
There is little question wearing a mask to school is not ideal for children, but with another coronavirus surge clearly underway, caution is called for lest we see more and more of our friends and neighbors in hospitals on ventilators. Or dying. We have come a long way, and now is not the time to drop our guard.
But whatever side of the debate you might fall on, truth matters. The leaders of the Unmask our Kids movement should publicly disavow these falsehoods.
Masks work. Anyone who tells you different is misleading you.