White House chief health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that “hopefully” making young kids wear face masks won’t have any “lasting negative impact” on them.
During an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Dr. Fauci said it’s important to keep an “open mind” about masking after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that unvaccinated children ages 2 and older wear masks and that students wear masks in all K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status, in light of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 delta variant.
“It’s not comfortable, obviously, for children to wear masks, particularly the younger children,” he said. “But you know, what we’re starting to see, Hugh, and I think it’s going to unfold even more as the weeks go by, that this virus not only is so extraordinarily transmissible, but we’re starting to see pediatric hospitals get more and more younger people and kids not only numerically, but what seems to be more severe disease.
www.foxnews.com/politics/fauci-young-kids-wear-masks-lasting-negative-impact
We still haven’t reached the end of the debate over how and when we will have all of the schools open for in-person learning. The teachers’ unions are still flip-flopping on things like vaccination mandates and other COVID-related restrictions. Not even all of the parents can seem to agree, though recent polling shows that most of them are ready to send their kids back to class. But that may not happen if there are mandates in place for children regarding social distancing and, more to the point, face masks. Now we’re seeing some leading pediatricians weighing in on the subject and the news is not great for kids. Forcing them constantly wear face masks and not physically interact with each other is producing verifiable negative impacts on their early development. (CBS Pittsburgh)
Playing with your peers is an important part of child development. However, kids aren’t socializing as much due to the pandemic, which doctors say is leading to concerning outcomes.
“We’ve seen some language delays and more social anxiety. The inability of a child to leave their parent and go play with other children,” said System Chair of Pediatrics at AHN, Dr. Joseph Aracri.
Dr. Joseph Aracri said this is the case particularly for toddlers.
“What happens in that phase of child development is when a child is leaving their parents. They’re trying to separate from their parents and figure out their own identity. Why they throw temper tantrums,” said Dr. Aracri.