Why are we making kids under 12 mask up?

Yesterday, the American Academy of Pediatrics released an embarrassment of a statement urging kids under 12, who can’t yet get the vaccine, to keep wearing their masks.

AAP president Lee Savio Beers said in the statement, ‘Children under age 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine, so it’s smart to be cautious and careful, especially when they are playing with friends, accompanying their parents to the grocery store, attending school or camp, and in any other situation in which they are around groups of people, some of whom may not be fully vaccinated.’

Notice there is no reference to a study or any data that supports the assertion that masks on children are at all useful. There aren’t any.

Most places in Europe start masking kids at age 12 while America does it at two. This isn’t because Europeans hate their children and want to see them suffer. It’s because there is no proof that masking small children, who have been shown again and again to be poor spreaders of the COVID-19 virus, makes any difference in containing spread. Forcing children to do something difficult is one thing. Forcing children to do something difficult that is also pointless is another.

Savio Beers is an activist and like many activists on the left right now she has decided to turn mask-wearing into a religion instead of a precaution. That’s why science is irrelevant. ‘It’s smart to be cautious,’ lectures your religious figure.

Savio Beers had previously taken a position, in her formal capacity at AAP, on transgender kids playing sports. What the debate over fairness in women’s sports has to do with pediatrics is unclear. Savio Beers has also urged Congress to pass the paid family and medical leave. Political activism is part of her AAP role.

The damage that will be done by politicized groups like the AAP and agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be incalculable. When the CDC backtracked on school openings after conferring with Teachers’ Unions, why should anyone ever trust them again? They shouldn’t. When the AAP releases guidance not based in any science, why should we care when they speak out in the future? We won’t.

‘We must be willing to take big, bold steps for the sake of our children, who have quietly and bravely borne an often unseen burden over the past year.’ That’s Savio Beers writing about the mental health crisis among children in March of this year. Big, bold steps start with removing the barrier that kids needlessly affix to their faces. If only the AAP was brave enough to break with their political allies and say so.