States, academics push for mask mandates for children

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Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued new COVID-19 guidelines for the upcoming school year. According to the report, children over the age of two should wear masks in school indefinitely regardless of their vaccination status. Despite the mountain of evidence refuting this suggestion, California reversed course on its return to normalcy and reinstated mask mandates for the upcoming school year. Along with California, six states require masks for K-12 students whether or not they are vaccinated.

In a town hall on Tuesday, President Biden voiced his support for the groundless restrictions and prophesized an imminent change to CDC guidelines. Speaking with CNN’s Don Lemon, Biden said, “the CDC is going to say that what you should do is, everyone under the age of 12 should probably be wearing a mask, and that’s probably what’s going to happen.” Many states look to the federal government when crafting school policy, so Biden’s prediction carries serious consequences.

The American Academy of Pediatrics’ controversial changes fly in the face of mounting evidence that children transmit, contract, and experience complications from COVID at an extremely low rate. Individuals under 18 accounted for less than 10% of all confirmed COVID cases in the U.S. and represented only .5 percent of the deaths. In addition, research from PLOS Computational Biology revealed that people under the age of 20 are far less likely to transmit the virus to others, meaning children are not at risk themselves, nor do they pose a serious threat to others. Further reinforcing children’s relative immunity to the virus, a recent English study found that zero minors died in the country over the course of the pandemic. Despite the mountain of evidence against it, Democrats continue to push mask mandates in schools, much to the students’ chagrin.

The public health emergency created by COVID-19 provided the perfect cover for the Left to increase the size and scope of the government. Democrats used the pandemic as a means to acquire massive amounts of political power, and they are now reluctant to give it up. As a result, they continue their COVID fear-mongering. However, many states have had enough.

At least nine states enacted bans on mask mandates including North Carolina, Texas, and Oklahoma, with some coming from state legislatures and others coming by way of executive order. Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, expressed the reasoning behind the executive action stating, “We can continue to mitigate COVID-19 while defending Texans’ liberty to choose whether or not they mask up.” In a recent press conference, Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, assured his constituents that no K-12 schools in the state would require masks in the fall. “We aren’t doing that in Florida,” DeSantis said.

After months of lengthy job-killing lockdowns, Americans want their freedom restored, but Democrats refuse to relent. They refuse to let a good crisis go to waste. Now, many liberal-controlled universities have decided to require a full dose of the COVID vaccine to return to campus, setting the stage for a standoff between unvaccinated students and faculty. America was founded on the values of limited government and self-agency. Democrats’ attempts to erode our constitutionally protected rights should not be ignored, and state legislatures should enact legislation to ensure their citizen’s personal autonomy remains protected.