New Jersey Governor to lift school mask mandate
'Fox & Friends Weekend' co-host Pete Hegseth joins 'Faulkner Focus' to discuss masks in schools and how this will play a role in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections
New Yorkers can now go to bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues without masks after the state lifted its mandate this week, but students are still forced to wear masks all day inside the classroom.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday that the state was still discussing the school mask mandate with education leaders and will reconsider the matter next month.
Adults in California will also be free to go maskless next week when the state's mandate expires, but the school mask mandate will stay in place. Health officials said they are working "with education, public health and community leaders to update masking requirements at schools to adapt to changing conditions."
Dr. Dyan Hes, the founder and medical director of Gramercy Pediatrics in New York City, said it doesn't make sense that children are still forced to wear masks for several hours a day while adults can go maskless.
"Kids are not the ones who are ending up in the hospital with COVID. It's the adults," Dr. Hes told Fox News Digital.
"So if anything, you shouldn't make the kids wear the mask, you should make the adults wear the mask, because they're the ones who, if they get COVID, they're sicker," Dr. Hes said. "Once again, the children are coming last instead of coming first."
A child wears a face mask on the first day of New York City schools, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Brooklyn, New York, U.S. September 13, 2021. (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo)
More than two-thirds of kids between the ages of 12 and 17 in New York are fully vaccinated, while 30% of children between the ages of 5 and 11 are fully vaccinated, according to state data.
"We know that even non-immunized children, for 99% of those kids, COVID is a mild illness," Dr. Hes said. "None of these decisions have been based in science."
CHILDREN AREN'T AS GOOD AT RECOGNIZING MASKED FACES AS ADULTS, STUDY FINDS
As of Feb. 3, children represented 18.9% of all COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, but only accounted for 1.6%-4.7% of COVID-19 hospitalizations and .00-.24% of COVID-19 deaths, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
A teacher walks among masked students sitting in a socially distanced classroom session at Medora Elementary School on March 17, 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
The evidence for masks is further muddled by conflicting studies on how effective they are at preventing COVID-19 transmission among children.
Brown University researchers analyzed COVID-19 case rates in New York, Florida, and Massachusetts for the 2020-2021 school year and "did not find any correlations with mask mandates."
A widely cited study of Arizona schools found that schools with mask mandates had fewer COVID-19 outbreaks, but as The Atlantic pointed out, the schools in the "no mask mandate" group also had much lower vaccination rates, which could skew the results.
NEW JERSEY WILL ELIMINATE SCHOOL MASK MANDATE FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF
The unintended consequences of masks for children, meanwhile, are "exponential," Dr. Hes said, noting that patients have developed "severe stranger anxiety" and problems with socialization.
"I have so many kids with speech delay and social issues from wearing this mask that I can't get people speech therapy appointments," she said.
Masked students wait to go to their classroom during the first day of class at Stanford Elementary School in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, August 16, 2021. (Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
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Several other states with Democratic leaders, including New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, and Oregon, announced that they would lift their mask mandates for schools and other indoor public places in the coming weeks.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called it "a huge step back to normalcy for our kids" in making the announcement.
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