The COVID hysterics are emerging again.

Joe Biden issued a White House edict on masking, and predictably, some schools systems across the country are dutifully requiring children to wear masks again.

It’s COVID 2.0: Return of the Mask Mandates, and we’re letting it gain a foothold even after we know masking was a terrible and ineffective decision. It was especially detrimental when it came to the educational and academic development of our children.

In the United Kingdom, a recent study found that post-pandemic, the instances of speech delays and communication issues in young children are at the highest levels they’ve ever been. In the UK alone, one out of every five children has a language and speech delay. The biggest contributing factor is masking. Though this study is the latest one, it’s hardly news.

Our Thomas Gallatin reported last year that the Centers for Disease Control secretly went in and changed the milestone speech standards for children by age. Speech pathologists and therapists were seeing a 300% increase in the number of children needing help due to pandemic policies. So the CDC changed the standard. The original milestone that parents and physicians would reference to make sure a child’s language development was on track was 50 words by 24 months. Now, the CDC has shifted the goalpost so that the 50-word mark needs to be met by 30 months.

Changing the standard because 75% of children aren’t meeting it is not only appalling but a disservice to parents who could have gotten their children help earlier. It’s also a cover-up for policymakers’ negligence.

Of course the CDC, which is partially at fault for endorsing the mask mandates in the first place, would happily move the goalpost. Others who bear an equal share of the blame include Dr. Anthony Fauci and the teachers unions.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), has gone through an interesting evolution throughout this debacle of policy mandates that have deeply hurt all our children academically. She first used the masking as a half-hearted measure to open up schools again. Then it was found that the AFT and the National Education Association (NEA) colluded with the CDC and heavily influenced policy surrounding mask mandates. After the pandemic panic was over and people went about addressing the shameful conduct of public officials during the pandemic, Weingarten denied her involvement and responsibility.

Now she is back in the news with her latest attacks on parental rights. Weingarten labeled school choice advocates and the rhetoric of parents fighting for their rights over their children as segregationists. (Side note: When a leftist resorts to the racism dogwhistle, she’s losing the argument.)

Using the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as her source on this accusation, she said in an interview: “I was kind of gobsmacked when I was talking to [the] Southern Poverty Law Center, and they showed me the same words, ‘choice,’ ‘parental rights’ — an attempt to divide parents versus teachers. [At] that point, it was white parents versus other parents, but it’s the same kind of words.”

Weingarten and the SPLC have intentionally misled people. Parents fleeing schools has nothing to do with segregation. The parental-rights movement is specifically anti-government indoctrination in nature. Parents of all races and creeds are fleeing the government schools as they are able. Calling it segregationist is ridiculous when people understand that there is, in fact, a large and growing group of black families that is starting to homeschool.

What is really going on here is that Randi Weingarten and her ilk are terrified of losing their tyrannical power they have over teachers, parents, and schools. With the loss of power comes a loss of government funds and a loss of political influence.

Weingarten has been rightly smacked for her insane commentary, and if there were any justice in the world, she would be out of a job right now.

Weingarten’s position on masking — one that we fully expect to see reemerge as the 2024 election draws nearer — is manifestly harmful to children of all ages. The only proper response by a sane and educated public is to never mask again (caveats obviously apply for those with cancer, terminal/chronic illnesses, etc.). The tradeoffs are too great. Plus the masking mostly doesn’t even work.