Why Is This Group of Doctors So Intent on Unmasking Kids?

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://newrepublic.com/article/165413/mask-mandates-kids-back-to-normal

No paywall
https://archive.fo/TZf42

Since the pandemic began, everyone has longed to get back to normal. For parents, in particular, who faced long waits to get children over 5 vaccinated and whose hopes were recently crushed by the announcement that the under-5 vaccine would be delayed, there has been little reprieve. We worry about everything: How safe are their playdates and school days? Do face masks affect their development? Will they be the unlucky ones, the sobering footnotes in every story, who face severe illness or death?

Every parent wants the same thing: a healthy, stable future for our kids. We want to put the stress and pain of the pandemic behind us.

But the past few weeks have shown that there is stark disagreement on the best path to a new normal. While the pandemic still rages, with 25 percent of children 5 to 11 and a little more than half of 12- to 17-year-olds vaccinated, a vocal minority of physicians and scientists has called for the end of precautions. Some of them, organized in a movement they call “the Urgency of Normal,” are finding an eager audience in those who have largely been spared the worst of the pandemic. The group says the precautions, more than the pandemic itself, are causing mental strain and potential harms to children. If the precautions are lifted, kids can return to normal.

Public health experts, meanwhile, point to what they say is a huge flaw in this reasoning: Removing precautions before meeting various vaccination, treatment, and caseload benchmarks could let the virus spread unchecked, develop more dangerous variants, and put “normal” out of reach for much, much longer.

There is, to be clear, little scientific disagreement about what helps quell the pandemic. Vaccinations, masks, ventilation, tests, staying home while sick—these layers of protection, when employed, are highly effective at keeping the virus from spreading, which is especially urgent with 109,000 daily cases, 2,000 daily deaths, and many hospitals still at capacity.

*snip*

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. Maybe they own stock in funeral homes?

[lagomorph777]

2. I'm old enough to remember when the right wing was opposed to unmasking.

...when they were hiding Trump's crimes behind masked identities...

[ananda]

3. Because they are greedy, psychopathic bastards.

Or worse.

[canuckledragger]

4. Because they're looking to drum up business?

[liberal_mama]

5. They are psychopaths and murderers, as far as I'm concerned

They don't like to wear masks and don't care if 1000s of people die so they aren't inconvenienced. They want masks to go away, in schools and outside of schools.