Our politicians, especially those who don’t wear an Independent badge, are often considered to be a weak, vacillating bunch. They flip-flop on important issues, and government by polling rather than by principle has become the norm.
But not when it comes to Covid. When the issue is about endlessly locking the country down and punishing those who disagree, most of the current bunch in Leinster House are made of stern stuff.
This pandemic has brought out the worst of the bully in too many people. We have descended, as has been observed, into mass hysteria – and all too-often it’s of the spiteful kind.
The new favourite occupation of too many Irish politicians is to put on a public display of being super-tough on anyone not fully complying with the Covid restrictions. Wyatt Earp had nothing on this crowd for tough justice. One Senator more or less suggested that the unvaccinated be barred from shops, presumably to starve them into submission or something.
Now that the strategy of blaming everyone else as a useful distraction from the ongoing failures of this inept government seems to be under scrutiny, the hapless crew running the country needed something else to latch onto.
Their focus, like the eye of Sauron, has swiveled now to primary school children, who we are told must be masked from third class onwards. What started off as a suggestion quickly became a command which must not be broken.
There are many reasons why masking young children is not a good idea, but the most jolting aspect of this new command is the harshness of the decree. We were told this morning that children who come to school without a mask will be sent home – in disgrace, we suppose.
This is grotesque and cruel. Can you imagine the distress and upset caused to a nine year-old child at being sent home from school as a punishment for not wearing a mask? Their humiliation is being used as a weapon, of course, to browbeat and strong-arm parents who have legitimate and valid concerns about forcing masks on primary school children.
What a shameful and despicable strategy – and that it is being enforced through the Department of Education only serves to compound the overbearing bullying on display.
We’re being told continually how important children’s mental health is, how milestones for development are critical, how parental choice is important. Yet, if parents have real concerns about this sudden decision to cover their children’s faces, their children will be made to suffer.
There’s no denying that it’s a smart move. Most parents won’t want their child to endure the agony of humiliation and blame of being picked out like this in front of the class, and will capitulate despite their misgivings. But while it may be a cunning strategy, it’s fairly despicable to use children in that way.
Last weekend, it was confirmed that “developmental and psychological impacts on children were not considered by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) when issuing advice on mask-wearing in schools.”
“The HPSC guidance in relation to masks in schools was issued solely on the basis of international research on Covid-19 infectivity, with no consultation on potential impacts on children’s development and mental health,” the HPSC told the Irish Examiner.
Good to know.
They also revealed that “a separate request sent to the Department of Education revealed that no expert guidance on child development or psychological welfare with regard to teaching staff and students wearing masks was sought there.
This is madness. Our supposed health authorities are making decisions which will have a major impact on children without full consideration of all the issues. It’s as if Covid-19 is the only source of all harm in the world.
There are a plethora of studies which show that it’s crucially important for children’s development to be able to observe and mirror facial expressions,in order to facilitate empathetic connections, build trust and develop social understanding.
Studies on the ongoing harm that may be caused by forcing young children to wear masks for 5 or 6 hours a day are ongoing, and some argue that effects might be short-lived, but the question no-one seems to ask much is whether this move is justified.
We’re being told that young children are now making up some 19% of new Covid cases, but according to the HSPC the number of children seriously ill remains low. In addition, the HSPC says that “the risk of onward transmission from undetected asymptomatic cases within the school setting remains low.”
The fact also remains that children are at very low risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid-19. And the reality is that this government is flailing about for answers now in the same way that they have been for almost two years now, because they are afraid that admitting they might have got the strategy wrong on this virus would be politically disastrous.
Writing in The Atlantic, Dr Vinay Prasa, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UC San Francisco, said that “the potential educational harms of mandatory-masking policies are much more firmly established, at least at this point, than their possible benefits in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in schools. To justify continued masking of schoolkids—with no end date in sight—we have to prove that masks benefit kids, and at what ages. States and communities that are considering masking policies just to be safe should recognize that being overly cautious has a cost, while the benefits are uncertain.”
Carol Nolan TD said her office had received a “massive” response from upset parents. ” The majority of parents writing and calling us are just stunned. The compulsory nature of it has genuinely frightened them. Many of them are very very supportive of restrictions generally, but they feel children are now ‘collateral damage’ from the government’s failed policies on ventilation filters etc. One parent who called my office felt that children have become human shields to protect government from the fallout of their own incompetence,” she said.
Parents of children with special needs, or autism or hearing difficulties are especially distraught by this compulsion to mask children, but many other parents will also fear the problems the decision will bring for their children. The Journal shamefully tried to label many of those parents as “far-right”.
Sending small children without masks home feels more like asserting control than public safety, more about nasty bullying than following “the science”.
The same parents who’ve been wholly patient with this never-ending lockdown to date, won’t forget that.