Articles:
Masks Can Be Detrimental to Babies’ Speech and Language Development | Scientific American, February 11, 2021
- Infants deploy selective attention to the mouth of a talking face when learning speech. David J. Lewkowicz, Amy M. Hansen-Tift. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2012, 109 (5) 1431-1436; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1114783109
- TENENBAUM, E., SOBEL, D., SHEINKOPF, S., MALLE, B., & MORGAN, J. (2015). Attention to the mouth and gaze following in infancy predict language development. Journal of Child Language, 42(6), 1173-1190. doi:10.1017/S0305000914000725
Let my children take off their masks, the science says it is safe | USA Today, May 15, 2021
- Meira Levinson, D.Phil., Muge Cevik, M.D., and Marc Lipsitch, D.Phil. Reopening Primary Schools during the Pandemic. September 3, 2020. N Engl J Med 2020; 383:981-985
- Benjamin Lee, MD; William V. Raszka, Jr, MD. COVID-19 Transmission and Children: The Child Is Not to Blame. Pediatrics (2020) 146 (2): e2020004879.
- Roberge R. Facemask use by children during infectious disease outbreaks. Biosecur Bioterror. 2011 Sep;9(3):225-31. doi: 10.1089/bsp.2011.0009. Epub 2011 Aug 15. PMID: 21843089.
It’s 98 Degrees Out. Why Is My Child Wearing a Mask? | The Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2021
- Open Schools, Covid-19, and Child and Teacher Morbidity in Sweden. February 18, 2021. N Engl J Med 2021; 384:669-671
- Emily Oster, Rebecca Jack, Clare Halloran, John Schoof, Diana McLeod. COVID-19 Mitigation Practices and COVID-19 Rates in Schools: Report on Data from Florida, New York and Massachusetts. This article is preprint and has not been peer-reviewed.
Mandatory Masking of School Children is a Bad Idea | The Orange County Register, July 16, 2021
Young kids are at low COVID risk in schools, but masking them could do long-term damage | New York Post, July 22, 2021
Masking kids and closing schools is irrational, unscientific child abuse | New York Post, August 1, 2021
Masking children: What does the science say? | Washington Examiner, August 4, 2021
The Downsides of Masking Young Students Are Real | The Atlantic, September 2, 2021
Covid and Age: An unvaccinated child is at less risk of serious Covid illness than a vaccinated 70-year-old. | The New York Times, October 12, 2021
Mask mandates are harming our childrens’ development | New York Post, December 5, 2021
The CDC’s Flawed Case for Wearing Masks in School | The Atlantic, December 16, 2021
We Learned Our Lesson Last Year: Do Not Close Schools | The New York Times, December 20, 2021
Opinion: Schools can safely make masks optional with the CDC’s new guidelines | The Washington Post, January 25, 2022
The Case Against Masks at School | The Atlantic, January 26, 2022
First, You Decide That Kids Belong in School | The Atlantic, January 27, 2022
Covid and the ‘Hygiene Hypothesis’ | The Wall Street Journal, February 1, 2022
Tear Down These Masks | The Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2022
DPS mask mandate harms our kids | The Denver Gazette, February 4, 2022
The Educational Consequences of Masking Children | National Review, February 5, 2022
Additional materials:
WHO also does not recommend masks for children under age 5 and cautions about mask requirements for those under age 11.
Children, COVID, and the Urgency of Normal: An advocacy toolkit and companion webinar for parents, students, mentors, teachers, administrators, and everyone invested in taking the best possible care of our children
Scientific studies:
Long COVID symptoms and duration in SARS-CoV-2 positive children — a nationwide cohort study | European Journal of Pediatrics, January 9, 2022
- Long-COVID is rare in children
Persistent symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst children and young people: A meta-analysis of controlled and uncontrolled studies | Journal of Infection, November 19, 2021
- Long-COVID is rare in children
Global Prevalence of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Children and Adolescents During COVID-19 | JAMA Pediatrics, August 9, 2021
- During the pandemic, depression and anxiety symptoms more than doubled, with 25% of youth suffering depressive symptoms and 20% feeling anxiety symptoms.
Reported COVID-19 Incidence in Wisconsin High School Athletes in Fall 2020 | J Athl Train, June 15, 2021
- No significant associations between COVID-19 incidence and face mask use.
- “Although face mask use was not associated with the COVID-19 incidence in our sample, this may have been due to the relatively low incidence rates in Wisconsin during fall 2020.”
COVID-19 Mitigation Practices and COVID-19 Rates in Schools: Report on Data from Florida, New York and Massachusetts | medRxiv, May 21, 2021
- No correlation between mask mandates and COVID rates
- “We caution that our analysis focuses only on correlations and it is challenging to make causal statements. In the case of masking in particular, we focus on mandates and not on actual behavior.”
The role of children in the spread of COVID-19: Using household data from Bnei Brak, Israel, to estimate the relative susceptibility and infectivity of children | PLOS Computational Biology, February 11, 2021
- People 20 and younger are less susceptible to infection and are less likely to spread COVID.