After weeks of media reports pushing the concept of a late summer COVID-19 surge, there has been no shortage of fearmongers advocating for a return to masks, despite the fact that masks have proven to be an ineffective means of mitigation.
With the fall school season getting underway, there’s a growing call to force children back in masks, and OutKick founder Clay Travis shared online a letter from an elementary school in a Washington, D.C. suburb in Maryland announcing a mask mandate for third-graders after several kids tested positive for the Chinese virus.
Rosemary Hills Elementary School informed parents that “3 or more individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 in [redacted] class in the past 10 days,” with Principal Rebecca Irwin Kennedy saying students will be required to wear N95 masks “to prevent further transmission” in that classroom for the next 10 days.
Clay responded: “A DC area elementary school — Montgomery County, Maryland — is reinstating a mask mandate — N95’s — for third-graders over a few kids testing positive for COVID. Here’s the letter. They’re coming with masks for your kids again. Get ready. Read this insanity.”
A DC area elementary school — Montgomery County, Maryland — is reinstating a mask mandate — N95’s — for third graders over a few kids testing positive for covid. Here’s the letter. They’re coming with masks for your kids again. Get ready. Read this insanity. pic.twitter.com/LZs4N19XLL
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 5, 2023
“Additional N95 masks have been distributed and students and staff in identified classes or activities will be required to mask while in school for the next 10 days, except while eating or drinking,” Kennedy wrote. “Masks will become optional again following the 10-day period.”
“At-home rapid test kits will be sent home and made available for students,” the principal added, noting that the CDC recommends testing should be done, “5 days after an exposure (starting day 6), or anytime if symptoms develop.”
In a follow tweet, Travis said: “This is why all the people who keep saying, ‘Why do you care?’ about people in masks are so wrong. These mask zealots want to force you and your kids to wear them again. This is their goal. They must be ridiculed and defeated. We have to win this battle once and for all.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign responded to the story to tout the Republican being well ahead of the curve on mask mandates for school children.
“Thankfully kids in Florida will not have to go through this hell since @RonDeSantis PERMANENTLY BANNED school mask mandates 2 years ago,” the governor’s rapid response team shared.
Thankfully kids in Florida will not have to go through this hell since @RonDeSantis PERMANENTLY BANNED school mask mandates 2 years ago. https://t.co/dNrlkMxVMZ
— DeSantis War Room (@DeSantisWarRoom) September 5, 2023
The consensus online seems to be that mask mandates are to be shunned… here’s a quick sampling of responses seen on X:
The second pandemic is here–a pandemic of misinformation.
— Marty Makary MD, MPH (@MartyMakary) September 6, 2023
Another ad for homeschooling
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 6, 2023
@MCPS didn’t get the memo. https://t.co/wKfszjLd1K
— Moms for “Free” Appropriate Public Education #FAPE (@Moms4FAPE) September 6, 2023
Not a day goes by that I don’t thank God I am in Florida.
— PhotographicFloridian (@JackLinFLL) September 5, 2023
N95s are not designed for children. And, in any case, they must be professionally fitted and fit-tested. And even then, they are not effective at stopping viruses.
— John Chamberlain, MHA, LFACHE (@misterchambo) September 5, 2023
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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