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White House chief health adviser Dr Anthony Fauci said Monday that “I hope” forcing young children to wear face masks will have no “lasting negative impact” on them.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Dr Fauci said it was important to keep an “open mind” about masking after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that children not. vaccinees aged 2 and over wear masks and that students wear masks in all K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status, in light of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 delta variant.
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“It is obviously not comfortable for children to wear masks, especially younger ones,” he said. “But you know, what we’re starting to see, Hugh, and I think it’s going to unfold even more over the weeks, is that this virus is not only so extraordinarily transmissible, but we’re starting to see pediatric hospitals. becoming more and more young people and children not only numerically, but what seems to be a more serious disease.
“Now we are following this, the CDC is following this very carefully, so it will be a balance that we would feel terrible if we all of a sudden said OK, kids, don’t wear masks, then you find in retrospect that this virus in a very, very strange and unusual way hits children really hard, “he continued. “But I hope it will be a temporary thing, temporary enough that it doesn’t have any lasting negative impact on them.”
Hewitt pushed back, citing a Sunday editorial in the Wall Street Journal titled “The Case Against Childrens Masks,” which argues that long-term masking can cause physical and developmental problems in children and that there is little evidence to support a warrant.
“Facial expression is an integral part of human connection, especially for young children who are only learning to report fear, confusion and happiness,” Hewitt said. “Covering a child’s face mutes these non-verbal forms of communication, can lead to robotic and emotionless interaction. So, doctor, what are you basing yourself on? Why ? “
Dr Fauci responded by saying that the data cited in the editorial “goes back to the alpha variant, not necessarily all of the more recent data on delta.”
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“Delta is different,” he said. “We better go back and make sure this data is really solid the same way you ask me, and I will. I’ll go back to CDC and make sure the data they’re talking about is really solid. So let’s do both. Let’s just check these two things and make sure we are really talking about apples and apples and not apples and oranges, and make sure we are talking about delta transmissibility because we are seeing this that it is doing right now.
“So I will keep an open mind,” he added.
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