It is notable that the Irish Government approved the use of facemasks for primary school children at a cabinet meeting on November 30th, 2021.
Why is it notable? It is notable because the Covid 19 pandemic first arose as an issue in Ireland in March of 2020. For nineteen months, the Irish Government resisted the notion of recommending facemasks for primary school children. We do not even especially need to know or understand the reasons why: We need only know that this was their position for more than a year and a half, having considered what we are always told is the best scientific advice.
It is further notable because just a week after the Government finally changed its mind on this subject, an Irish media outlet described teachers who hold the exact same position today that the Irish Government and NPHET held one week ago exactly, as “anti mask”:
“SEVERAL ANTI-MASK primary school teachers have formed a campaign group on Facebook to protest against children wearing face coverings in schools”
The media outlet in question, of course, is The Journal, which is fast carving a niche for itself as the most hysterical publication on the island:
The group, which we are not naming, is headed by current, working primary school teachers, with some of them saying they believe the pandemic is not about health.
One of the group’s administrator’s posted on the page in the last week that this new mask rule for children is not about health – “instead it is about control”.
The group was formed on Facebook but its members have since attended anti-vax and so-called “freedom rallies” where they gave speeches to the demonstrators present.
The group features advice on how to push back against the new rules. It also includes draft templates of emails which can be sent to various boards of education and management.
A protest which took place at the Dáil on Friday was heavily advertised on the Facebook group’s social media channels.
Let’s clear a few things up here: First, is it my view that the pandemic is “not about health, and instead is about control”? – not really. But that is not, exactly, an allegation that is entirely meritless. After all, a thinking person might ask why, if facemasks for children are an essential public health measure, it took 19 months for somebody to realise it. There are two possible explanations: Either it is not really an effective public health measure, or the people in charge of public health are incompetent.
Consider, for a moment, the point in bold (my emphasis) above: The Journal, is reporting, as news, that some primary school teachers hold political opinions, and engage in political activism. This is truly shocking, in a country where the Taoiseach is a primary school teacher.
The point, of course, is not that these teachers are engaging in activism, but that they are engaging in the wrong kind of activism. And the point is not that they have opinions, but that their opinions are what might be called “dangerous”.
It is also, apparently, news that some people engaged in political activism have drawn up draft emails to make it easier for their supporters to register their views with elected officials.
It is important to call this kind of journalism out for what it is: It is the attempted demonisation of normal political activism.
In a democracy, people have a right to air their views and express them, even when those views are wrong. If activism was only confined to views which were clearly correct and fact-based, then most of the Irish left would have been banned from it decades ago, along with Fianna Fáil, and Fine Gael.
Nor is it especially controversial to oppose the masking of primary school children. Even had Government not held that position itself for as long as it has, the fact would remain that there are multiple, reputable, scientific studies showing that masks in that agegroup have, at best, limited benefits, and at worst, do real harm to social development. Those studies, of course, do not get a mention on the Journal, and never have.
It might be unusual for one media outlet to criticise another as starkly as we at Gript regularly criticise the Journal, but it is important: This lot are, after all, Ireland’s self-appointed “fact checkers”, and their work and pronouncements have, for some time, been taken as the gold standard in factual accuracy by social media platforms like facebook. You can, in fact, get banned from facebook for promoting a view that the Journal declares to be false.
But who fact-checks the fact checkers?
What we have in Ireland is a hysterical – borderline fanatical – media outlet, staffed almost entirely by very young, very radical progressive writers, which sees the far right everywhere, and is entirely uninterested in the context of opposing views. And that outlet has been awarded the status of fact-checker by companies with the power to decide who gets to speak, and who does not.
It is true that there exists, in Ireland, a far right. It is also true that some elements of the far right see the anti-covid restriction movement as their ticket to wider popularity. That is a story, just as it was a story (though one much less covered) that the far-left in Ireland tried the same trick with the water charge movement a few years ago.
What is not true, though, is the idea that people who hold the same view on the masking of children for 19 months are suddenly “anti maskers”, or far right. The far right might be attempting to radicalise these people. But in terms of who is actually radicalising people, the Journal, NPHET, and Government are doing a vastly better job.