Compilation of Material From the Medical Community on
Harms to Children, Data on Masks, etc.
- Hoeg T, Krug A, McBride L, Gandhi M. It’s time for children to finally get back to normal life. Washington Post May 26, 2021
- Madad S, Gandhi M, Ashish Jha. These are the metrics that will tell us when we can safely lift restrictions. Washington Post, April 7, 2021
- Beck A. Gandhi M. Adjudicating Reasons for Hospitalization Shows That Severe Illness From COVID-19 in Children Is Rare. Hospital Pediatrics May 2021
- Gandhi M. Overcaution Carries Its Own Danger to Children. The Atlantic. February 27, 2021
- Hoeg T, McBride L, Krug A, Gandhi M. It’s time for children to finally get back to normal life. Washington Post May 26, 2021
- Noble J, Gandhi M, Bienen L. The Pandemic’s Toll on Teen’s Mental Health. Wall Street Journal. June 10, 2021
- Hoeg T, Johnson D, Gandhi M. Schools Must Reopen Fully This Fall. Here’s How. New York Times. June 8, 2021
This paper reports on the correlation of mitigation practices with staff and student COVID-19 case rates in Florida, New York, and Massachusetts during the 2020-2021 school year. We analyze data collected by the COVID-19 School Response Dashboard and focus on student density, ventilation upgrades, and masking. We find higher student COVID-19 rates in schools and districts with lower in-person density but no correlations in staff rates. Ventilation upgrades are correlated with lower rates in Florida but not in New York. We do not find any correlations with mask mandates. All rates are lower in the spring, after teacher vaccination is underway.
The recommendation to wear surgical masks to supplement other public health measures did not reduce the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate among wearers by more than 50% in a community with modest infection rates, some degree of social distancing, and uncommon general mask use. The data were compatible with lesser degrees of self-protection.
To conclude, here, we showed that mask use influences our ability to infer facial expressions at any age. Furthermore, we showed that the human capacity to read emotions from facial configurations when a face mask is present becomes particularly reduced in toddlers. We suggested that this is related to different age-related developmental stages of face processing associated with emotional reasoning. Such observation poses the question whether a privation of facial visual features, as the one we are experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, might alter or delay the development of social skills associated with face perception in early childhood.
A recent review concluded that there was ample evidence for adverse effects of wearing such masks. We suggest that decision-makers weigh the hard evidence produced by these experimental measurements accordingly, which suggest that children should not be forced to wear face masks.
“A Lancaster Central School elementary student suffered an asthma attack after wearing a face mask in school in last week's sweltering heat and was rushed to John R. Oishei Children's Hospital.
His sister also had an asthma attack in school the same day, and their parents said the school district will not exempt the children from wearing masks without a doctor's note.”
What About the Delta Variant? Should This Be Considered?
