@eladar saidThe truth is I kind of have mixed feelings on that one. I said I have no problem with it, but the truth is it makes me a bit uneasy. Honestly, it's a tough one. They do it with MMR and most people don't seem to have a problem with that. My real preference is to let people do what they want, but if there's major community spread and there's real need to slow it, I prefer mandatory vax to mandatory masking.
@sh76
No more risk for them than the flu, but you still support forcing kids to get vaccinated for covid before being allowed to attend school in person?
Edit: Let's put it this way. I consider all-remote learning a desperate, last ditch option and forced masking only a micro-step above that. Where there is such spread that the hospital system is being stressed by COVID patients, mandatory vax might be the least of all evils.
@sh76 saidI'm not impressed by your total lack of ability to find any serious consequences of mask wearing, if necessary, by schoolchildren. The only article you produced was an opinion piece written by someone who produced possibly the most flawed "study" of COVID since the pandemic broke, who co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration (https://gbdeclaration.org/) which, if followed, would have led to a serious increase in deaths pursuing "herd immunity" at a point when it seemed fairly certain effective vaccines were shortly on the way and who has then questioned the efficacy of said vaccines. Not exactly a convincing source.
The truth is I kind of have mixed feelings on that one. I said I have no problem with it, but the truth is it makes me a bit uneasy. Honestly, it's a tough one. They do it with MMR and most people don't seem to have a problem with that. My real preference is to let people do what they want, but if there's major community spread and there's real need to slow it, I prefer mandator ...[text shortened]... hospital system is being stressed by COVID patients, mandatory vax might be the least of all evils.
As I said, whatever health experts agree on is fine with me. But children can catch COVID, can die from it and can spread it even to vaccinated persons. The risk to any particular child might be small, but in a country of 330 million, we would be accepting more deaths and illnesses for very little benefit as far as I can see IF they decide masking is appropriate.
@eladar saidI'm tired of such idiotic statements.
@no1marauder
Kids can die while sleeping in bed. The question is how likely.
IF 337 kids had died in bed in the last year and IF we had simple measures to cut or eliminate that number, we'd do them.
Moreover, in this case, kids can cause adults to "die in bed", too.
It’s a difficult call.
Masks do interupt communications. And what sort of a world are we creating?
And remote learning is second degree to live learning. The lack of social interaction isn’t good for most people and certainly not kids. As someone pointed out, you don’t pick up on non-verbal communication (which is 70%+ of interaction) over the computer.
Besides that, the actual effectiveness of a mask (the kind we’re talking about) isn’t great. Studies aren’t conclusive. At best they stop you spreading corona when sneezing, coughing or screaming.
That being said, you don’t want children to become plague bearers either…
Realistically, however, once the vaccination roll-out is completed, there is no other option than exposing kids to the virus and letting it rip.
At this moment in time the virus is less harmful than a flu to a kid. You want that initial spread out of the way. Then with the vaccinations, corona should theoretically stall in its transmissions, ultimately slowing the rate of mutation.
So the general wisdom is keep kids as safe as possible until the vaccine roll-out is complete.
And that means at least 80% of the 12+ population vaccinated completely.
Anti-vaxxers don’t comprehend the larger picture at hand. Or the race against time in this. All you need is a single variant combining the L452R and E484K mutations and you’ll have a nasty bugger which spreads faster and circumvents the body’s defences. And if the mutation rate isn’t slowed down, it’s not unimaginable that a mutation will appear which the current vaccines can’t stop.
Or that by not getting vaccinated, we’re basically isolating kids from part of their childhood experiences.
People really need to grow up.