> IMO masks are severely harming social and interpersonal development of young children, but any suggestion of removing the masks creates shit storm of controversy.
That's because serious illnesses which are easily transmitted can severely harm social and interpersonal development.
Yes, kids do mostly OK with covid, but their parents and other close contacts may not. If wearing masks brings the risk level down enough to have school in person, that's probably better than online school without masks.
We're still talking about a little piece of cloth, right? It still amazes me that people are willing to have [presumably other] people die over such a small thing. There are veterans who went off to war and died for their country, but these days, people are not even willing to so much as wear a piece of cloth. All in service of this nebulous concept of "being normal".
Do we require the same of people who are overweight and refuse to lose weight to achieve a healthy BMI? What about people who have risky sex? No health resources as they're dying of AIDS?
> Its not only about me. Plenty of people do not like mask.
Look, I don't like wearing masks either. They often hurt my ears, and my glasses fog up depending on conditions, and they're uncomfortable in many other ways. Some of these things could probably be fixed, but mostly I enjoy being a hermit, so I can deal with it.
But, I really don't like all of the negative consequences of uncontrolled community spread worse. If the ICUs are full and I get an injury or other illness that needs ICU treatment, that's not going to be good for me. If the funeral homes are overbooked and I die, my corpse may linger for months before it rests.
If it's too dangerous for my kid to go to school in person, I'm going to have to hear more of the most awful video conferences ever this year. I thought work VC was terrible when I had to do a couple hours a week, it's much worse when all of the participants are using home networking, and nobody has a decent connection and everyone has their volume at max and are yelling; I like that a whole hell of a lot less than wearing a mask.
My personal threshold? I could do this forever. I don't think that's likely though, because a whole lot of other people have a much lower threshold. It might be a good idea during flu season, though, and I think we'll see some people adopt that as a new habit.
As I understand it, in my jurisdiction, the specific, quantitative criteria is a majority of the votes of the local school board, provided a quorum (3) is attending a meeting; assuming no other level of government has provided otherwise.
That's specific and quantitative, and not really subject to change if we ignore outside government actions; but of course, it doesn't really answer your question. I don't know what their criteria are, although they have discussed some at times, but the criteria have changed over time, and the measurements have all sorts of problems too.
People don’t like masks, got it. People don’t like seatbelts either. In both cases, society pays the cost. But at the same time, these rugged freedom fighters crusading for a false sense of individualism have no issue with reaping the benefits of living in a well-funded society full of services, full of people that care about other’s well being.
I think there might be assumption made that everyone who wears masks likes it. I don’t like it. But it’s easy, and I like taking simple measures that help keep my family and community safe.
Like a seatbelt, a simple tool that is easy to use and saves lives. Also like a seatbelt, not using it places a potential burden on those around you.
Masks are far more annoying than seatbelts. I got vaccinated. I don’t mind wearing the mask in stores. But wearing it in a social environment does significantly alter the experience for the worse, in my opinion.
Why don’t we pay people to get vaccinated? And mandate that employers allow people to take days off if they are sick for a bit after the shot?
That's because serious illnesses which are easily transmitted can severely harm social and interpersonal development.
Yes, kids do mostly OK with covid, but their parents and other close contacts may not. If wearing masks brings the risk level down enough to have school in person, that's probably better than online school without masks.