(NewsNation Now) — Parents and even a scientist working for the federal government are imploring school leaders to make masks optional.
Margery Smelkinson, a staff scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says the approach is outdated as the pandemic enters its third year.
“We just don’t have the robust evidence we need to justify continue masking in school, especially when you weigh against the potential harms,” Smelkinson said Monday on “On Balance with Leland Vittert.” She said her views do not represent NIAID, which is run by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
But masking proponents, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, argue schools are a prime place for transmission to occur since students are in confined spaces and the ventilation is not always robust enough to prevent infections.
Critics of masking in schools point to studies that show children’s cognitive behavior may be suffering. Young children learning how to read facial expressions miss out on countless opportunities to pick up on them in school among their peers and teachers.
Carrie Lukas’ son is in first grade and has never been to school without a mask.
“He’s never had a chance to smile at his friends or hear his teacher’s unmuffled voice and it is outrageous and ridiculous,” Lukas said on “On Balance.”
Lukas is the president of the Independent Women’s Forum and lives in Virginia, where newly elected Gov. Glen Younkin rescinded his state’s mask mandate for schools. Some districts in left-leaning parts of the state are suing to block that move, however.
Smelkinson called the omicron wave a “turning point.”
“Omicron has really forced us to realize this virus is not going anywhere,” she said. “Omicron is easing, our children [have now been] eligible to be vaccinated for three months now. Now’s the time to figure out the best way forward to get these schools back to normal as much as we can.”
While omicron pushed child hospitalizations and case rates to pandemic highs, they still fare better than adults statistically when infected. The CDC points to the communal benefit of reducing the spread of the disease, arguing a child could infect someone who is immunocompromised or older, which are both high risk factors.
Lukas said her parents are cancer survivors.
“The last thing in the world they would think is, ‘We want a whole generation of children to wear our masks for 40 hours a week on the off chance that this may somehow benefit me,'” she said.
Children 5 and older are also eligible to get Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, though not as many parents have taken their kids in for jabs as some expected. As of Monday, 67.8% of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated.
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