Child Mask Mandates

Why does the US remain an outlier?

It’s fair to say that mask mandates in children were controversial. They were mandatory in schools across several European countries and German states for the entire 2020-2021 school year until autumn 2021.

In the UK, secondary school children were required to wear masks only in communal areas, while primary school children were not required to mask up.

So, what does the evidence now say?

A recent systematic review on child mask mandates for COVID-19 concluded that “real-world effectiveness of child mask mandates against SARS-CoV-2 transmission or infection has not been demonstrated with high-quality evidence. The current body of scientific data does not support masking children for protection against COVID-19.”

The review screened included 22 studies in the final analysis; none were randomised controlled trials. 

All six observational studies reported an association between child masking and lower infection rates and critical or serious risk of biases. Sixteen other observational studies …