Source: Zero Hedge
On Friday, Biden spox Jen Psaki said that the administration is not taking into account the “emotional, academic, and psychological effects” of forcing school children to wear masks at school.
Fox News‘ White House correspondent Peter Doocy first asked Psaki what she thought of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R) threat to withhold funds from school districts that don’t let parents opt out of masking requirements, to which Psaki said she wants ‘public health officials to make decisions about how to keep my kids safe,’ adding that DeSantis is ‘fundraising off of this.’
“Our view as an administration that parents in Florida, parents across the country, should have the ability and the knowledge that their kids are going to school and they’re in safe environments…”
To which Doocy replied: “He [DeSantis] said that his concern is about harmful emotional, academic and psychological effects of putting kindergartners in masks for hours at a time. Is there any concern from officials that you guys talk to in your early pre-decisional discussions about that.
“No, there’s not. And I’ll tell you from personal experience, my rising kindergartner told me two days ago, she could wear a mask all day – and she’s just happy to go to camp, and go to school.”
Watch:
Peter Doocy asks @PressSec if there’s concern from health officials about the “emotional, academic, and psychological effects” of masking children in school:
“No there’s not… My rising Kindergartener told me two days she could wear a mask all day.” pic.twitter.com/qXN2kIQ5yF
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 6, 2021
As John Tierney of City-Journal noted in April, “Social distancing and masks hinder learning while harming children emotionally, socially, and physically, all for no purpose other than providing false comfort to adults who ought to know better.”
The mask mandates are especially cruel to young children. Adults are supposed to ease their fears, to reassure them that monsters aren’t hiding under the bed. Instead, we’re frightening them into believing they’re being stalked by invisible menaces lurking in the air. A year of mask-wearing will scar some of them psychologically—and maybe physically, too, according to a team of Italian professors of plastic surgery, who warn that the prolonged pressure from the elastic straps could leave young children with permanently protruding ears. By hiding teachers’ lips and muffling their speech, mask-wearing makes it harder for young children to develop linguistic skills and prevents children with hearing impairments from lip reading. Unable to rely on facial cues, teachers and students of all ages are more likely to misinterpret one other, a particularly acute problem for children on the autism spectrum. How are children supposed to develop social skills when they can’t see one another’s faces, sit together, or play together?
Researchers from the University of Witten/Herdecke in Germany have catalogued other problems. They established an online registry for parents to report on the side effects of mask-wearing. Among the nearly 18,000 parents who chose to respond (not a random sample, obviously), more than half reported that the masks were giving their children headaches and making it difficult for them to concentrate. More than one-third cited other side effects: increased reluctance to go to school, unhappiness, malaise, impaired learning, drowsiness, and fatigue. After considering those reports as well as testimony from other researchers, a court in Weimar, Germany, recently ruled in favor of a parent arguing that her children’s basic rights were being violated by the mandates for masks and social distancing at her children’s two schools. The court ordered the schools to end the mandates, declaring that they damaged the “mental, physical and spiritual well-being” of students while failing to offer “any discernible benefit for the children themselves or for third parties.”
Masks can be breeding grounds for infections from bacteria, mold and fungi, which is why the Centers for Disease Control recommends that a cloth mask should be washed with soap and water “whenever it gets dirty or at least daily.” The CDC also advises washing your hands any time you take off the mask, and then washing your hands again after you put it back on. Pretending that children (or adults, for that matter) are dutifully taking all these precautions is absurd, yet the CDC nonetheless recommends that everyone older than two should wear masks both indoors and outdoors.
Which experts are the Biden administration following this time, and can we see a copy of their rationale for forcing kids to wear masks all day?
