The Physical and Emotional Effects of Masks on Children
October 2020
A German study involving over 25,000 children reveals that major negative impacts on the physical, psychological, and behavioral health of children may be far more widespread than reported in the media and by government officials -- affecting approximately 68% and contributing to 24 distinct health complaints, according to parent submitted observations.
Corona children studies "Co-Ki": First results of a Germany-wide registry on mouth and nose covering (mask) in children, describing the results of 17,854 parent submitted reports on health complaints or impairments experienced as a result of wearing masks by their 25,930 children.
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The average wearing time of the mask was 270 minutes per day. Impairments caused by wearing the mask were reported by 68% of the parents. These included irritability (60%), headache (53%), difficulty concentrating (50%), less happiness (49%), reluctance to go to school/kindergarten (44%), malaise (42%) impaired learning (38%) and drowsiness or fatigue (37%)."
Download study pdf
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The Atlantic
Jan 26 2022
The Case Against Masks at School
Districts should rethink imposing on millions of children an intervention that provides little discernible benefit.
By Margery Smelkinson, Leslie Bienen, and Jeanne Noble
To our knowledge, the CDC has performed three studies to determine whether masking children in school reduces COVID-19 transmission. The first is a study of elementary schools in Georgia, conducted before vaccines became available, which found that masking teachers was associated with a statistically significant decrease in COVID-19 transmission, but masking students was not—a finding that the CDC’s masking guidelines do not account for.
A second and more recent study of Arizona schools in Maricopa and Pima Counties concluded that schools without mask mandates were more likely to have COVID-19 outbreaks than schools with mask mandates. Yet more than 90 percent of schools in the “no mask mandate” group were in Maricopa County, an area that has significantly lower vaccination rates than Pima County. This study had other serious shortcomings, including failure to quantify the size of outbreaks and failure to report testing protocols for the students.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/kids-masks-schools-weak-science/621133/
New Study at ‘The Lancet’ Debunks Widely Cited CDC Study Justifying School Mask Mandates.
May 29, 2022
“Our study replicates a highly cited CDC study showing a negative association between school mask mandates and pediatric SARS-CoV-2 cases,” the authors state. “We then extend the study using a larger sample of districts and a longer time interval, employing almost six times as much data as the original study. We examine the relationship between mask mandates and per-capita pediatric cases, using multiple regression to control for differences across school districts.”
Thus, the researchers are correcting for many of the most potent criticisms of the CDC’s research methods. The findings support what the critics have said all along.
“Replicating the CDC study shows similar results; however, incorporating a larger sample and longer period showed no significant relationship between mask mandates and case rates,” the authors state.
Psychiatrist bans child-masking and 'all forms of child abuse' in his practice
Posted by Mark McDonald, M.D.
Feb 10, 2022
https://aflds.org/news/post/psychiatrist-bans-child-masking-and-all-forms-of-child-abuse-in-his-practice/
'I will no longer accept your ill-informed, foolish, immature rationalizations for the ongoing abuse of your children'
Are you happy or sad? How wearing face masks can impact children’s ability to read emotions.
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The Brookings Institute
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As more and more people are covering their faces in public, it becomes difficult to read facial expressions and see people smile (or frown). While this may not pose challenges for adults, young children look for emotional cues from caregivers to interpret novel or potentially threatening situations. That is, children rely on their caregiver’s facial expressions and tone of voice to regulate their response toward people and new situations. The development of this emotional communication is referred to as social referencing, and occurs between infancy and the early preschool years.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2020/04/21/are-you-happy-or-sad-how-wearing-face-masks-can-impact-childrens-ability-to-read-emotions/
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