“Remember that California children are forced to wear masks in schools all day and that California extended their indoor mask mandate through February,” radio host Ari Hoffman tweeted, posting a picture of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, maskless with Magic Johnson Sunday at the Los Angeles Rams’ home playoff game.
Newsom, of course, is no stranger to COVID hypocrisy — remember his trip to the French Laundry? — but, like so many politicians, is seemingly without shame. So we have AOC dancing maskless with drag queens in Florida, Nancy Pelosi getting her hair done when shops are closed, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson partying during lockdown.
Rules are for little people.
This time, literally. Officials have cruelly forced children to wear masks for six to eight hours a day, every day, with no regard for short- and long-term consequences. Parents who voice any concern about masking are ignored, or worse, slandered as “wanting people to die,” which is willful ignorance of the scientific facts.
Making a child wear a mask all day is performative idiocy. First, most kids are wearing cloth masks, which the Centers for Disease Control has long known provide little prevention. But that’s almost irrelevant to the fact that children are of very low, to almost non-existent, risk for COVID symptoms.
Madness nationwide
The chaos and confusion surrounding mask mandates continued in January when New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Rademaker ruled the mandate unconstitutional. Gov. Hochul and state bureaucrats immediately mobilized to appeal the decision and ordered schools to disregard the ruling. While many schools announced that masks would be optional, other schools, under the guidance of her Department of Education, stated that mask mandates would still be enforced.
In the Riverhead and Manhasset school districts, unmasked students who arrived at school were quickly segregated from the rest of the student population, prompting parents to descend on those schools to advocate for their children’s right to an equal education.
Incidents like this are occurring in other parts of the country, too.
In Virginia, several school districts have defied Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s mask-optional order and are segregating unmasked children. These decisions not only interrupt the critical continuity of education children so desperately need, they also provide a justification to openly discriminate against them.
The anti-science theme continues in Los Angeles County. Students are now required to wear nose-wired surgical masks. The absurdity here is that as the severity of COVID is decreasing and poses minimal risk to children, the restrictions are becoming more draconian.
In Pennsylvania, parents advocating for parental choice were publicly humiliated. Having witnessed the mental decline of their children and attributing this to the mandate, York School Board member Richard Robinson referred to those parents as “the most offensive and vile of all,” rather than sincerely reflecting on their concerns. Actions like this perpetuate the fear that public officials exist to rule over the people, rather than to serve the people.
Listen to science, right?
Enormous damage has been done to young children’s overall health — in terms of cognitive development and social interaction. The assertion that mask wearing poses no “significant health effects” has been made throughout the pandemic; however, there are a plethora of peer-reviewed studies that beg to differ.
When does it end? How many scientific studies will it take for schools to come to their senses? How low do cases need to fall before officials are finally convinced? And how many displays of COVID hypocrisy such as Newsom’s smiling social media will it take before parents rise up say, “Enough!”
For too long many have surrendered to fear, and it is time we open our eyes and take a deep breath.
Nicholas Giordano is a full-time tenured professor of political science, the host of “The P.A.S. Report” podcast, and a former emergency management planning lead.
