The Patriot Post® · Banning Mask Mandates Banned by Court

Forcing children to wear masks is not only ineffective, it can be downright “abusive.” So argued Marty Makary and H. Cody Meissner back in August. At issue were school mask mandates put in place by administrators all over the country. Now, a federal court has struck down a ban on mask mandates.

The aforementioned men aren’t just political blowhards. Markary is a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor, and Meissner is chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Tufts Children’s Hospital who served on the Food and Drug Administration’s external advisory panel for the COVID-19 vaccines. Their argument against masks for children boils down to a couple of key things: First of all, kids struggle with masks and for a lot of reasons — they make breathing more difficult, fog up glasses to make seeing harder, create or exacerbate acne and other skin problems, distract from studies, inhibit communication, and, especially in younger children, hinder the fundamental interactive ability to see people’s faces. These things can result in anxiety and depression.

Second, masks (on children in particular) are ineffective. “Believe it or not,” they say, “we could find only a single retrospective study on the question, and its results were inconclusive.” And on top of that, few children suffer severe consequences from COVID. There have been fewer than 150 deaths associated with COVID among children age 5-11, and most of those children had significant comorbidity factors. These children are precious and not just statistics, but it’s unlikely that masking would have saved them.

Indeed, nowhere in the U.S. does there seem to be any correlation between draconian protocols and reduced cases, nor between loose policies and rampant infection.

We rehash all of that because U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel on Wednesday struck down Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates in state schools, claiming that the ban violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Keep in mind that Abbott never banned masks; he banned mandating them. The same goes for other Republican-led states being harassed by the Left.

“The spread of COVID-19 poses an even greater risk for children with special health needs,” Yeakel wrote. “Children with certain underlying conditions who contract COVID-19 are more likely to experience severe acute biological effects and to require admission to a hospital and the hospital’s intensive-care unit. This includes children with conditions including, Down syndrome, organ transplants, lung conditions, heart conditions, and weakened immune systems.”

Yeakel added, “The evidence presented by Plaintiffs establishes that Plaintiffs are being denied the benefits of in-person learning on an equal basis as their peers without disabilities.”

It is certainly desirable for the vast majority of children that they attend classes in person, and kids being kept out of school have suffered enough damage to their education during this infernal pandemic. It is also true that kids Yeakel listed would be at greater risk from COVID, but will they actually even return to school? Joe Biden’s Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the case, and the DOJ admitted, “Some parents of children at heightened COVID-19 risk will likely keep their children at home — even though the children could safely attend school if mask protocols could be put in place.”

All those perfectly healthy kids suffering damage to their education while wearing masks? Suck it up. All the children with asthma, poor vision, or other health concerns that make wearing masks unbearable? Too bad for you.

Civil rights. Harumph.

The irony of it all is as baffling as it is infuriating. As Kym Davis Rogers, one of the victorious attorneys, lectured, “No student should be forced to make the choice of forfeiting their education or risking their health, and now they won’t have to.”

As we already explained, yes, a lot of students will be forced to compromise their education and health — without a choice.

More hypocritical irony came courtesy of Biden himself, who, when he first challenged mandate bans back in August, complained that it wasn’t the tyrants like him making the pandemic political but “some politicians [who] are trying to turn public safety measures … into political disputes for their own political gain.”

Speaking of politicizing the pandemic, the Biden administration is pushing hard for vaccinating kids age 5-11 despite the low risk from COVID and the possible risks of vaccine complications for that cohort. Yet, as NPR reminds us at the end of its coverage of the Texas case, the CDC “recommends universal indoor masking for all students, staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status” [emphasis added].

What NPR doesn’t mention is that the goalposts were moved. Less than six months ago, the CDC held out the carrot that if we all got vaccinated, we could stop with the face diapers. Heck, Biden himself said, “The rule is now simple: Get vaccinated or wear a mask until you do.” That tweet is still live, by the way, despite the fact that it contradicts current administration policy, or that it ignores the science on natural immunity — science the CDC even lamely tried to contradict.

The carrots are long gone. Now, it’s nothing but sticks.

The exit question goes to Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, who lives under a far more tyrannical regime north of the border: “Why did I get the vaccine then if you’re not going to leave me alone?”