The educator in me loves this. Thank you for providing your expertise. Oh, and I love how you called out the rhetoric "our children deserve to have their needs put first." That line is hilarious!
Thank you so much for putting this information together. So many times someone reads an article in a newspaper and they take it for being correct. Just because someone gets something published doesn't make it right, or them correct in their conclusions. I LOVE you gave corrections and notes like a professor would. I wish you could submit it to the WP for them to post it as a response to the original article.
"our children deserve to have their needs put first".... I missed the part of the article where the authors found a study (or did one for themselves) asking what these kids need... there's a bunch of assumptions on what they need without so much as anyone seeming to ASK a kid. Mine are happy to wear their masks because they don't want to be the ones not wearing a mask when other kids are... they just turned 12 last week and I was able to get them their first Pfizer dose yesterday. They were concerned about the younger kids and how long it will take to protect them. They aren't refusing or arguing to wear masks, they are worried they still might get their friends sick if they don't wear a mask around others. I'm sure we (mostly) want to get back to pre-covid times... but we're not going to return to a pre-covid normal... we're going to eventually get to a post-covid normal... which is going to look completely different than before. Good luck to us all, because we're in this together... like it or not.
Thank you for this and all the posts. Long time follower/ admirer. New-ish subsciber. Commenting here but same q keeps occurring: I don’t understand if how the CDC guidance is to be followed re: kids under 12. That is, my husband and I, family, friends are all vaccinated but our daughter is not and cannot be yet. How are we to engage given that? I plan to continue masking but already see many are not. And so now I actually feel less safe than pre vaccination / a month ago on my daughter’s behalf. Articles like this “ kids need to be kids” and the new relaxed guidance for camps have me confused and upset. Of course we too want kids to be kids but a camp without masking or distancing is very different than the one we signed up for, a world in which all are unmasked ( i think we have to assume vaxed and unvaxed) feels way LESS safe for kids than the world under quarantine. Is your take that CDC is accounting for all this and feels it is ok for kids? ( would make me feel better!) or do you have other takes on this or suggestions for parents of young kids
The article says that the spread during sports, with or without masks, is low. Is that true? Does that mean kids can safely play outdoor soccer without masks?
An addition, the indoor classes my kids took that were masking decided to stop requiring masking for the kids. I haven't seen any recommendations that support this. Have the recommendations and safety for non-vaccinated kids doing classes indoor changed, allowing for safe participation in indoor, unmasked activities?
Also i was confused by 1/1000 contracting mis-c - am i reading that right? It was cited as if low where to me it sounded way ( way!) higher than I thought the numbers were. Thanks again for your analysis !
Re the last point: Do masks actually protect the wearer? I was under the impression that the big reason to wear masks was to prevent an asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic person from accidentally spreading the disease.
The educator in me loves this. Thank you for providing your expertise. Oh, and I love how you called out the rhetoric "our children deserve to have their needs put first." That line is hilarious!
Thank you so much for putting this information together. So many times someone reads an article in a newspaper and they take it for being correct. Just because someone gets something published doesn't make it right, or them correct in their conclusions. I LOVE you gave corrections and notes like a professor would. I wish you could submit it to the WP for them to post it as a response to the original article.
"our children deserve to have their needs put first".... I missed the part of the article where the authors found a study (or did one for themselves) asking what these kids need... there's a bunch of assumptions on what they need without so much as anyone seeming to ASK a kid. Mine are happy to wear their masks because they don't want to be the ones not wearing a mask when other kids are... they just turned 12 last week and I was able to get them their first Pfizer dose yesterday. They were concerned about the younger kids and how long it will take to protect them. They aren't refusing or arguing to wear masks, they are worried they still might get their friends sick if they don't wear a mask around others. I'm sure we (mostly) want to get back to pre-covid times... but we're not going to return to a pre-covid normal... we're going to eventually get to a post-covid normal... which is going to look completely different than before. Good luck to us all, because we're in this together... like it or not.
Thank you for this and all the posts. Long time follower/ admirer. New-ish subsciber. Commenting here but same q keeps occurring: I don’t understand if how the CDC guidance is to be followed re: kids under 12. That is, my husband and I, family, friends are all vaccinated but our daughter is not and cannot be yet. How are we to engage given that? I plan to continue masking but already see many are not. And so now I actually feel less safe than pre vaccination / a month ago on my daughter’s behalf. Articles like this “ kids need to be kids” and the new relaxed guidance for camps have me confused and upset. Of course we too want kids to be kids but a camp without masking or distancing is very different than the one we signed up for, a world in which all are unmasked ( i think we have to assume vaxed and unvaxed) feels way LESS safe for kids than the world under quarantine. Is your take that CDC is accounting for all this and feels it is ok for kids? ( would make me feel better!) or do you have other takes on this or suggestions for parents of young kids
The article says that the spread during sports, with or without masks, is low. Is that true? Does that mean kids can safely play outdoor soccer without masks?
An addition, the indoor classes my kids took that were masking decided to stop requiring masking for the kids. I haven't seen any recommendations that support this. Have the recommendations and safety for non-vaccinated kids doing classes indoor changed, allowing for safe participation in indoor, unmasked activities?
Also i was confused by 1/1000 contracting mis-c - am i reading that right? It was cited as if low where to me it sounded way ( way!) higher than I thought the numbers were. Thanks again for your analysis !
(I was just going to write it's WaPo, vs what my email said in the text part. But I see you changed it here. I didn't look online yet. Thank you!
Re the last point: Do masks actually protect the wearer? I was under the impression that the big reason to wear masks was to prevent an asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic person from accidentally spreading the disease.