A new systematic review has been published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, one the journals of the British Medical Journal, by Sandlund et al. titled “Child mask mandates for COVID-19: a systematic review”. Since no randomised controlled trials have even been conducted on child mask-wearing or mask mandates, the authors systematically reviewed observational studies and included 22 in the final analysis: 6 found child mask mandates were associated with lower rates of infection; the other 16 didn’t.
I vaguely remember the study of heart attack among low ranked bureaucrats at Whitehall. Seems not much has changed since then (26:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIRwFOqZa2Q. Aside from the most ephemeral of communities, loners, and outcasts, so it has always been, thus it will always be — until we cease to exist as a species.
My only in-person class is about 5-10% depending on the weather. I occasionally still see a masked person or two in my online classes. There has been a steady decline since 2021. I am teaching in south Texas, and most of my students are Americans of Mexican or Native descent, working class background. I teach at a community/junior college.
Thanks for those comments about social context. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that context has some correlations with susceptibility to propaganda, authoritarianism, and common sense. But I also suspect there are so many confounding variables, it will be difficult to tease out a pattern distinct from individual termperaments. Glad to see a healthy dose of common sense among your students.
Most of the kids at the junior-high school I walk past in the morning are still masking. Almost all girls wear masks while playing tennis too, so it's most likely for peer-pressure / facial complex reasons.
Whatever the reason, it is not healthy, inhibits communication and learning.
I suspect that peer pressure plays a huge part. Facial complex has long been a problem but in my over twenty years teaching here, I had only encountered 2 students who suffered from it, both in the same class.
Reports are that many more suffer from it after nearly four years of constant masking. Who’d a thunk that could happen.
There was one line in it that encapsulated the misery these mandates inflicted on the children, 'Some kids had apparently ‘grown so forlorn and desperate’ during silent lunch that they ‘made up their own sign language so they could communicate with each other’.
Yeah, I remember that. I got so angry and depressed that I couldn't finish the article.
I've repeatedly written about the fact Japanese many people openly admit they wore masks primarily for social reasons like avoiding standing out and not being thought of as a troublemaker. I think a lot of American liberals were similar but lack the candor to admit it since they live within areas where the Democrat party line is sacrosanct.
Imagine being a parent at a blue state Montessori school and wanting the school to cut out the Covid BS. You know that no matter how much data or how many studies you present to persuade the school to let the kids breath properly, you and your kids will pay the social price of you being denounced as a selfish anti-science MAGA Trump supporter. So you keep your mouths shut and covered. The same goes for opposing kids being taught there are 57 varieties of gender too.
It's a strange thing group pressure. In a group of masked faces it isn't possible to distinguish the reluctant masker from the mask enthusiast. There are some clues - N95 and double masking can signal deep commitment, but equally it can signal fear or physical vulnerability; conversely, neck gaiters were the face covering of choice for the sceptic, but also the high priestess of Covid herself (with hidden panty liner).
For 2 years I believed that most local people seemed to approve of the mask mandates but in Spring 2022 our govt dropped mask requirements - initially my patients continued to wear them (as they remained highly recommended in healthcare settings). However as I wasn't wearing one, 99% took them off when the door to the consultation room was closed and many confessed they actually hated them. I suspect that the silent majority didn't want to mask after all.
I'm curious about Japan though - I thought that 'mask dependency' was a thing there years before Covid, with people becoming addicted to the anonymity aspect.
"Mask dependency" existed pre-Covid but was very rare. Prior to April 2020, people generally only wore masks only if they had cold/flu symptoms, so you'd see people wear masks on the trains in winter but never see anyone masked outside in 30+ degree heat in the ultra-humid Tokyo summer.
But surveys for the past few years have suggested about half of Japanese adults actually like masking. And I believe it. In the office complex in which I work, the mask rate went down during summer, but it's well over 50% once again.
Even worse is the junior high school I walk past on my way to/from work. Almost all girls are still masking even while playing tennis! Since this has little to do with Covid, you can't fix it by showing masks don't work because they do work for these girls' purposes: fitting in with the group; hiding facial complexes; avoiding the reputation of someone who thinks they're good-looking (yes, really).
That's so interesting about the teenage girls. I guess my generation spent their teens and early 20s putting up with the discomfort of wearing trousers hanging half-way down their backsides to reveal their underwear, all for the sake of fashion and conformity. 30 years on those same women are now wearing high waisted trousers, so maybe those girls will get over the masking. We can but hope.
If you understand and accept that the whole point of the pandemic measures was (and is) to harm and control the population, then the masks were actually all benefit. In Canada, they're still encouraging parents to allow their BABIES to get jabbed despite the fact that they're at zero risk from Covid. My brother's toddlers are fully-vaxxed and probably also boosted, since he's had three boosters himself (dead man walking).
It would also be brilliant if most teachers, and certainly teachers' union leaders read this. I'd be happy to set them a little test to ensure that they had read and understood. (Although there must be very many test-setters better qualified to undertake this task.)
It absolutely sickened me that delivery drivers and supermarket till staff just had to suck it up and get on with their work. Meanwhile, Mossisons' supermarket in the UK were giving "teachers" a 10% discount, whilst the teachers were sat on their arses, mostly doing nothing and on full pay!
What we’re seeing is a cult and the mask denotes and signals membership. Mask use is increasing among leftists. No study, regardless of validity or origin will spur them to abandon their masks.
It's a shame people attracted to positions of authority tend to be high in behaviors inversely correlated with 'nice'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfITqXD6koo
I vaguely remember the study of heart attack among low ranked bureaucrats at Whitehall. Seems not much has changed since then (26:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIRwFOqZa2Q. Aside from the most ephemeral of communities, loners, and outcasts, so it has always been, thus it will always be — until we cease to exist as a species.
Thanks for the info, Guy. I hadn't had the chance to read this study yet - very much appreciated! My university students are STILL about 30% masked...
My only in-person class is about 5-10% depending on the weather. I occasionally still see a masked person or two in my online classes. There has been a steady decline since 2021. I am teaching in south Texas, and most of my students are Americans of Mexican or Native descent, working class background. I teach at a community/junior college.
Hi Pancho.
Thanks for those comments about social context. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that context has some correlations with susceptibility to propaganda, authoritarianism, and common sense. But I also suspect there are so many confounding variables, it will be difficult to tease out a pattern distinct from individual termperaments. Glad to see a healthy dose of common sense among your students.
Cheers from Japan.
steve
Today. 2/3 of mine were masked.
Most of the kids at the junior-high school I walk past in the morning are still masking. Almost all girls wear masks while playing tennis too, so it's most likely for peer-pressure / facial complex reasons.
Whatever the reason, it is not healthy, inhibits communication and learning.
I suspect that peer pressure plays a huge part. Facial complex has long been a problem but in my over twenty years teaching here, I had only encountered 2 students who suffered from it, both in the same class.
Reports are that many more suffer from it after nearly four years of constant masking. Who’d a thunk that could happen.
Remember the article about the Montessori school in New York?
https://www.thefp.com/p/the-school-that-couldnt-quit-covid
There was one line in it that encapsulated the misery these mandates inflicted on the children, 'Some kids had apparently ‘grown so forlorn and desperate’ during silent lunch that they ‘made up their own sign language so they could communicate with each other’.
Yeah, I remember that. I got so angry and depressed that I couldn't finish the article.
I've repeatedly written about the fact Japanese many people openly admit they wore masks primarily for social reasons like avoiding standing out and not being thought of as a troublemaker. I think a lot of American liberals were similar but lack the candor to admit it since they live within areas where the Democrat party line is sacrosanct.
Imagine being a parent at a blue state Montessori school and wanting the school to cut out the Covid BS. You know that no matter how much data or how many studies you present to persuade the school to let the kids breath properly, you and your kids will pay the social price of you being denounced as a selfish anti-science MAGA Trump supporter. So you keep your mouths shut and covered. The same goes for opposing kids being taught there are 57 varieties of gender too.
It's a strange thing group pressure. In a group of masked faces it isn't possible to distinguish the reluctant masker from the mask enthusiast. There are some clues - N95 and double masking can signal deep commitment, but equally it can signal fear or physical vulnerability; conversely, neck gaiters were the face covering of choice for the sceptic, but also the high priestess of Covid herself (with hidden panty liner).
For 2 years I believed that most local people seemed to approve of the mask mandates but in Spring 2022 our govt dropped mask requirements - initially my patients continued to wear them (as they remained highly recommended in healthcare settings). However as I wasn't wearing one, 99% took them off when the door to the consultation room was closed and many confessed they actually hated them. I suspect that the silent majority didn't want to mask after all.
I'm curious about Japan though - I thought that 'mask dependency' was a thing there years before Covid, with people becoming addicted to the anonymity aspect.
"Mask dependency" existed pre-Covid but was very rare. Prior to April 2020, people generally only wore masks only if they had cold/flu symptoms, so you'd see people wear masks on the trains in winter but never see anyone masked outside in 30+ degree heat in the ultra-humid Tokyo summer.
But surveys for the past few years have suggested about half of Japanese adults actually like masking. And I believe it. In the office complex in which I work, the mask rate went down during summer, but it's well over 50% once again.
Even worse is the junior high school I walk past on my way to/from work. Almost all girls are still masking even while playing tennis! Since this has little to do with Covid, you can't fix it by showing masks don't work because they do work for these girls' purposes: fitting in with the group; hiding facial complexes; avoiding the reputation of someone who thinks they're good-looking (yes, really).
That's so interesting about the teenage girls. I guess my generation spent their teens and early 20s putting up with the discomfort of wearing trousers hanging half-way down their backsides to reveal their underwear, all for the sake of fashion and conformity. 30 years on those same women are now wearing high waisted trousers, so maybe those girls will get over the masking. We can but hope.
They took appalling to new depths! Despicable is not sufficient,
I have these anagrams from 'Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School'.
No clue neo Nazis intellect bosh or sham
Satanists bonzer uneconomic hellhole
If you understand and accept that the whole point of the pandemic measures was (and is) to harm and control the population, then the masks were actually all benefit. In Canada, they're still encouraging parents to allow their BABIES to get jabbed despite the fact that they're at zero risk from Covid. My brother's toddlers are fully-vaxxed and probably also boosted, since he's had three boosters himself (dead man walking).
It would also be brilliant if most teachers, and certainly teachers' union leaders read this. I'd be happy to set them a little test to ensure that they had read and understood. (Although there must be very many test-setters better qualified to undertake this task.)
It absolutely sickened me that delivery drivers and supermarket till staff just had to suck it up and get on with their work. Meanwhile, Mossisons' supermarket in the UK were giving "teachers" a 10% discount, whilst the teachers were sat on their arses, mostly doing nothing and on full pay!
The crazyness pandemic.
The teacher’s union probably knows and knew from the beginning that all we were told to do for Covid was wrong. It never was about health.
What we’re seeing is a cult and the mask denotes and signals membership. Mask use is increasing among leftists. No study, regardless of validity or origin will spur them to abandon their masks.
At least they can be identified as such, wearing their 'mask of the beast'!
https://baldmichael.substack.com/p/m-is-formasks
Poor kids.