Rockhound, you out there?

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

Don't know what Bryan's medical specialty is but Dr. Nipunie Rajapakse, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Mayo Clinic Children's Center, answers these questions and offers insights into the benefits of everyone over age 2 wearing masks when in public settings or around unvaccinated people.

Are there negative effects of a child wearing a face mask?

Because of the concerns that have been raised about whether there are any negative effects of masking on children, there have been now numerous studies done. These studies have unequivocally shown that there are no negative health effects on children from wearing a mask.

What are the benefits of a child wearing a mask?

We know that masks significantly protect both the person who's wearing them and the people around them. The other benefit of masks is that they can help protect against other viruses. We are seeing an increase in other respiratory viruses that we don't usually see circulating this time of year, specifically two viruses, respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, and parainfluenza virus, which is a virus that causes croup. We will also be getting into influenza season this fall. Masks are effective in preventing the spread of these viruses as well.

Wearing a mask will help decrease the number of symptomatic respiratory illnesses that kids have, as well. Hopefully, this will help keep more kids in school and avoid having to quarantine if there are positive cases, and reduce the number of days that parents need to take their kid in for testing if they were to get sick — because these other respiratory viruses are also circulating now.

At what age should children begin masking?

Masking is recommended for anyone over 2. The other important part, especially in the pediatric age group, is the person wearing the mask should be able to remove it themselves if they need to. If your child has a neurodevelopmental disability, for example, or motor issues, where they wouldn't be able to remove the mask if needed, we do not recommend they wear a mask.

What type of mask should children wear?

A multilayer cloth mask or a child-sized medical mask are both good options. The important thing when it comes to kids is making sure that they're wearing it and making sure that they're wearing it properly. That means it should cover both their nose and their mouth completely. It should be comfortable for them to wear, and it should fit securely on their face without any large gaping areas or gaps.

It's important, especially since kids have probably grown over the last 18 months, to make sure that you increase their mask size as they grow. And before going back to school, try them on to make sure they all fit properly. Make sure that they're labeled with your child's name, so they don't get shared around with other children, and make sure that they're kept clean and in good condition. A new clean mask should be used each day, and your child should always have a backup mask easily available at school in case the mask they are wearing becomes wet, dirty or damaged.

Can kids really get sick from COVID-19?

We do know that over 500 kids have died of COVID-19 in our country. We do know that there can be long-lasting effects from this infection that we're still trying to understand. We still don't know the impacts on developing organs, bodies, organ systems in kids or whether there might be other long-term impacts that have not come to light as well yet. When you look at all those things, it becomes important to do whatever we can to try and prevent kids from getting this infection.

We also know that there's a rare complication called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children that can be life-threatening as well. The only way to prevent that is to prevent kids from getting COVID-19. And that's another reason why vaccination is an important part of preventive strategies for this age group.

So your opinion of what happened last night at the Emmys, with all those well-connected democrats, is.......

I can also show you video footage of Fauci saying that wearing masks to prevent getting a virus, is "paranoid", he literally laughed at the suggestion in 2019.

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

So your opinion of what happened last night at the Emmys, with all those well-connected democrats, is.......

All vacc'd or with current tests, they chose to take the risk. Kids in school don't have that choice, nor staff or their families.

I can also show you video footage of Fauci saying that wearing masks to prevent getting a virus, is "paranoid", he literally laughed at the suggestion in 2019.

Two years ago, at the start of Covid?

Who cares about either of those and what do either have to do with the health of children given what is known and still unknown today?

Herschel Walker played Russian roulette and is still here, would you suggest anyone try that also?

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

Who cares about either of those and what do either have to do with the health of children given what is known and still unknown today?

Herschel Walker played Russian roulette and is still here, would you suggest anyone try that also?

Why do the actors get to make a choice that isn't available to my kids?

Interesting, that the HELP at the emmys, had to wear masks. But not the swells.

You posted a doctor who advocates for kids wearing masks. Fo revery single study showing kids benefit from wearing masks, I can post a study saying the masks don't help little kids. There's no consensus.

Yet actors who write huge checks to democrats can forgo masks, and all you can say is that it's their choice to not wear one. That requires you to ignore the risk they pose to everyone else.

You're OK with famous democrats being able to make a choice. BUt not anyone else. Because as always with you guys, politics trumps truth. Always. Always.

Except with Bry. Which is why I asked him, not you guys. I already knew for 100% certainty what you'd say.

[Pete F.]

Nothing says childish like the current vaccine debate. I think that it’s instructive to look at how the country reacted to the COVID vaccine compared to the polio vaccine. First, some facts. The first polio vaccine was released in 1955. According to the CDC, in the prior year, there were 38,475 cases of polio and 1,368 deaths. Contrast that with the year prior to the COVID vaccine being released (I chose March 1, 2020 to March 1, 2021 as the time period just to get an equivalent number of months). In that year span, there were 28,000,000+ cases and 515,124 deaths.

And how did the country react to these two scenarios? I am old enough to remember being given the Sabin polio vaccine shortly after it came out (I’m pretty sure that they gave it out in school). And I don’t remember any arguments against taking it. In fact, I only remember people being happy that such a miracle drug was available (I think that pictures of people in iron lungs will do that for you.). No one accused the medical authorities of crimes against humanity. No one claimed to have been magnetized by the vaccine. No one accused J. Paul Getty (the richest man in America in 1955) of trying to profit from the vaccine.

In other words, as a country, we acted like adults.

And what about 2021? Here we were faced with a disease that caused 376 times more deaths than polio (and was more transmissible to boot). And a vaccine with a 90%+ effectiveness was being given to us free of charge. Yet armed with that knowledge many of us decided to do our own “research” and then decided that we weren’t going to take the vaccine because we believed it was somehow designed with evil intent or (at best) was going to cause more harm than good. How did we know that? Because we have seen a “collapse of any division between professionals and laymen, students and teachers, knowers and wonderers - in other words, between those with any achievement in the area and those with none at all”. So a lot of people simply decided that they knew more than the medical experts, or they simply searched for someone who would confirm their already-held beliefs. And in 2021, there’s always someone.

And, of course, it wasn’t just the vaccine. We reacted to simple mitigation steps like wearing a mask as if we were being forced to crawl across broken glass on our hands and knees. We weren’t about to eat that broccoli.

Serious countries don’t react like we have.

[scottw]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

Serious countries don’t react like we have.

you should probably move to a serious country

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by scottw

you should probably move to a serious country

The pandemics 2nd wrongest commentator continues to just be clueless.

As a state Vermont took it seriously, and it has worked.
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