By Kevin Roche
It should be obvious to anyone who looks at charts of cases and levels of mask wearing or presence of mask mandates that virus collection devices do nothing to limit community spread of CV-19, absolutely nothing. But in case you are thinking “well, what harm can it do”, at least in the case of children, the answer is probably a lot. I am not convinced in general that extended mask wearing is without physical and health consequences, and I think it is possible they contribute to spread by collecting and concentrating pathogens.
This study from Germany was designed to assess the effect of mask-wearing on children. (Ger. Study) A registry was set up for parents, teachers and doctors to report issues around mask-wearing by children. The registry was used for over 25,000 children at the time of this analysis. The study is subject to the usual bias limitations of self-reported data. Average mask wearing was over 4 1/2 hours a day. Very significant effects were identified by 68% of parents. 60% reported irritability, 53% headache, 50% difficulty concentrating, 49% less happiness, 44% a reluctance to go to school, 42% malaise, 38% impaired learning and 37% drowsiness or fatigue. Sounds great, right. As the authors note, given the extremely low risk to children and their limited role in transmission, this issue should be taken seriously and at a minimum further research should be undertaken to determine if there is actually any value to requiring children to wear masks.
The answer to me is obvious. What we are doing to children in all respects in regard to the epidemic is state-sanctioned, indeed forced, child abuse.