VIEWPOINT / When Lying Has the Potential to Kill 

By W. Timothy Weaver, Ph.D.

“What’s that smell in this room? Didn’t you notice it, Brick? Didn’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?” Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

“When regard for truth has broken down or even slightly weakened, all things will remain doubtful. St. Augustine, “On Lying,” from Sissela Bok, Lying.

Deceit and lying are at the heart Governor DeSantis’ Executive Order banning mask mandates in Florida Schools. He has declared that, “There is no empirical evidence to support the assertion that the benefits of forced masking of schoolchildren outweigh the potential harms. Masking kids under 12 is not recommended in many EU countries, because their health authorities have found that the risks are not well understood – and the data shows that forced-masking of young children has a negligible impact on COVID prevalence and spread.” 

Let’s examine these claims. The first sentence is false on its face. The European study his claim relies upon had a sample of 11 children and 22 adults. One of the findings was that adults in the study had higher rates of protection than children when wearing masks. But the authors also concluded that, “All masks provided protection against transmission by reducing exposure during all types of activities, for both children and adults.” Source: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0002618

While he claims many European nations are not mandating masks for students, and the reason is that the impact on students is unknown, he fails to state the following actual reason: “When considered alongside countries, U.S. states make up five of the eight worst outbreaks in the world, which are in: Louisiana, Georgia, Botswana, Florida (93 cases per 100,000 people), Mississippi (89), Cuba (78), Arkansas (77) and Alabama (68), excluding countries with very small population sizes. Source: Forbes, August 11, 2021.

The point is that Norway, Sweden, Poland, and the Netherlands have much lower rates of community infection than Florida. This fact, not the impact on children, is the reason they are not mandating mask-wearing in schools. European countries with higher rates of infection such as France, Italy and Germany are mandating masks in schools.

DeSantis’ claim of data showing that “forced-masking” of children has a negligible impact on COVID prevalence and spread is both misleading and outright false. Prevalence of COVID in school is a function of the number of infected in the community. There is no evidence to show mask wearing in schools has a negligible impact on spread and prevalence within schools. Indeed, just the opposite is true: “When prevention strategies are consistently and correctly used, the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the school environment is decreased. Use of multiple strategies – also called layered prevention – provides greater protection in breaking transmission chains than implementing a single strategy. Source: CDC (see more below).

“CDC guidance recommends layering multiple prevention strategies, especially in areas with moderate to high community transmission, low vaccination rates, and for people who are not fully vaccinated.

Studies of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools that consistently implemented layered prevention strategies have shown success in limiting transmission in schools, even when testing of close contacts has been incomplete. For example:

A study of 11 school districts in North Carolina with in-person learning for at least nine weeks during the fall 2020 semester reported minimal school-related transmission even while community transmission was high. These schools implemented and strictly adhered to multiple prevention strategies, including universal mask use and physical distancing. Breaches in mask use likely explained the few instances of in-school spread of SARS-CoV-2.

A study of elementary schools in Utah who implemented layered prevention strategies, such as mask wearing and cohorting, found very low transmission (secondary attack rate 0.7%) in December 2020-January 2021.

In a study of K-12 schools in St. Louis with multiple layered prevention strategies in place, only 2% of contacts of COVID-19 cases in the schools tested positive for the virus; this was despite high community transmission rates.

A study of Italian schools, which implemented a comprehensive prevention approach that included masking, distancing, cleaning, increased ventilation, and cancellation of extracurricular activities, found that school reopening was not associated with the second wave of COVID-19 in Italy.

Similarly, a surveillance study of symptomatic and asymptomatic cases among children in Swiss schools found limited secondary transmission when multiple protective measures were used in schools, including mask use, physical distancing, and other interventions.

Data from surveillance of German school outbreaks detected outbreaks before any prevention strategies were implemented. After schools reopened with prevention strategies in place, the average number of outbreaks per week after the reopening (2.2) was smaller than before the school closed earlier in the pandemic (3.3), suggesting that prevention strategies had some protective effect.

A study of private schools that reopened for in-person instruction in Chicago with the implementation of layered prevention strategies found minimal in-school transmission.

When a combination of effective prevention strategies is implemented and strictly adhered to in the K-12 in-person learning environment, the risk of transmission in the school setting appears to be lower than or equivalent to the transmission risk in other community settings.” Source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/transmission_k_12_schools.html?fbclid=IwAR3ymaGznWuDDWVOY4oS8jroAyDMoss00TyWny56U9SK2p6euRKshuhredw.

When carefully examined, the DeSantis Executive Order is filled with false and misleading claims. It is based on nothing but falsehood. It would be clownish if the stakes weren’t so high. This order can kill children. 

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