CDC’s COVID-19 Mask Guidelines For Children Challenged By House Republicans

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

House Republicans are challenging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s COVID-19 guidelines for children, including mask requirements in school.

Led by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), the lawmakers penned a letter to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky calling on her to roll back recommendations that children wear masks, citing the harms to mental health.

Their letter asks Walensky to hold a briefing with Republicans on the House Oversight Committee by Feb. 7 to explain why the CDC continues to recommend mask-wearing in schools.

“There is no question, as we enter the third year of this pandemic, CDC’s guidelines and policies have failed to factor in—let alone prioritize—children’s social, emotional, and educational development,” the GOP lawmakers wrote in their letter. “In fact, CDC is undermining its own credibility as it continues to jeopardize an entire generation’s development.”

They further noted that teenagers and younger children “are experiencing a mental health crisis of historic proportions” amid pandemic restrictions, citing a recent U.S. Surgeon General warning that “suicide attempts have risen sharply for adolescents.”

The GOP House members also targeted mask guidelines for children aged 2 and older by saying they are hindering childhood development and don’t align with mask requirements elsewhere.

The letter further noted that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommends against primary school children wearing masks in class, and they added that the World Health Organization (WHO) says that children under 6 shouldn’t be required to wear them, either.

“Many of America’s peer nations around the world—including the U.K., Ireland, all of Scandinavia, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy—have exempted children, with varying age cutoffs, from wearing masks in classrooms with no evidence of an uptick in school outbreaks in those countries relative to schools in the U.S.,” they further argued.

Throughout the pandemic, a number of studies have shown that children have an exceptionally low risk of dying or developing severe disease from COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, as compared with other age groups. Data suggest that individuals who are elderly and have preexisting conditions are most at risk from the virus.

Currently, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington require most individuals to wear masks in indoor public places with some caveats. However, many states last year eased or eliminated mask orders, while 11 states have not imposed mandates at any point during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Epoch Times has contacted the CDC for comment.