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Q&A – What Child Vaccinations & School Mask Mandates Are Really About
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry: Good Morning Brian, I've attached two pictures...one explains it, the other shows proof. They knew all along that masks were not needed to "keep kids safe". I hope you can read the page straight out of their arguments. Although I'm thrilled my children can opt out of masks I'm still furious at the school board for putting us through this, for disregarding all the parents who spoke up at every meeting, for accusing us of not following the science, calling us names, discrediting us and our children. For what? A judge's ruling over a state law....a statute! It was a statute! It wasn't just the Governor's opinion. There's a huge difference.
Bringing this to you from a parent on the front lines. Keep up the good work Brian.
Bottom Line: I’ve continued to receive a flood of comments and notes from parents regarding the school mask situation on back of Friday’s third legal win by the state over school districts which have imposed mask mandates without parental opt-outs and with the onset of the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations for children as young as 5 this week. This note in particular ties together both of those topics. In one of the pictures referenced in the note, this listener sent me an excerpt from Friday’s decision in favor of the state/parental rights by Judge Brian Newman. On page 14 of his 25 page decision was this excerpt: Children have died from COVID-19 but that outcome is extremely rare. The COVID-19 Situation report case fatality rate for people under 16, and for people aged 16 to 29, is 0.0%. This data was submitted jointly by Petitioners and Respondent and its accuracy was not questioned. Experts called by both sides support the obvious conclusion to be drawn from this data. That’s why this listener said the offending school districts knew all along (that children aren’t at meaningful risk from COVID-19). The school districts actually submitted data showing that children have essentially no risk of dying from COVID-19 in Florida. So, if school districts know there’s no meaningful risk to children why would they be willing to break the law to impose mask mandates? It appears to be a different version to a similar thing to the consideration for child COVID-19 vaccinations.
Last Thursday’s Q&A tackled the question of whether it made sense for children as young as five to be vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine. As part of that story I brought you this: According to the CDC there have been a total of 748,164 COVID-19 attributed deaths among Americans of all ages. How many of those might you think have been from children between the ages of 5-14? The answer...185. To put this in perspective, approximately 11% of the US population is between 5 and 14. They account for 0.02% of all COVID-19 related deaths. My conclusion based on the data, which shows children are 3x to 5x more likely to die of pneumonia than COVID-19 during the pandemic, is that there’s no medical justification for having children immunized for COVID-19 for their benefit. Just as there wasn’t justification for having children forcibly masked in a naturally social distanced classroom.
What both of these issues point to is a realization that adults in public policy positions have been willing to make decisions which potentially compromise the education and well-being of our children out of fear that they’ll become carrier for the virus and spread it to potentially susceptible adults. On Friday, when I spoke to Dr. Octavio Diaz, the Chief Medical Officer for South Florida’s Steward Health Care, he said I “hit the nail on the head” with that assessment based on the data. Something tells me that if local school districts had presented their argument that way to begin with most parents would have revolted against the idea. Just as would likely be the case if public health officials and the medical establishment were to be honest about child COVID-19 vaccinations. These issues aren’t and haven’t been about the well-being of our children. It’s theoretically about your well-being.