To the Tri-County and Jefferson County Health Departments --

Against the will of countless parents, you voted to force toddlers and young children to mask up. Even after you took a survey of parents and we overwhelmingly told you that our children should not be forcibly masked this school year, you chose not to care. This is unacceptable.

NO SCIENCE ON YOUR SIDE
The survival rate among children in the U.S. with confirmed cases is approximately 99.99%.

Children are 14 times more likely to die from drowning and 10 times more likely to die from cancer than from COVID-19. The odds of being struck by lightning are 41 times the odds of a child dying of COVID-19.

The CDC says "For young children, especially children younger than 5 years old, the risk of serious complications is higher for flu compared with COVID-19."

THE HARM OF MASKING CHILDREN
While the benefits of masks in preventing serious illness or death from COVID-19 among children are infinitesimally small, we know that masks are disruptive to learning and communicating in classrooms.

Science shows that babies and toddlers need to see mouths moving to learn how to talk. Speech delays among our 2, 3 and even 4 year olds could increase as you force toddlers to wear masks. One study found that 4 to 6 year old bilingual students rely on lip reading to understand English.

“Masking is a psychological stressor for children,” according to researchers from the University of Southern California. “The long-term harm to kids from masking is potentially enormous.”

“Children lose the experience of mimicking expressions, an essential tool of nonverbal communication. Positive emotions such as laughing and smiling become less recognizable, and negative emotions get amplified. Bonding between teachers and students takes a hit.

Overall, it is likely that masking exacerbates the chances that a child will experience anxiety and depression, which are already at pandemic levels themselves.” (Neeraj Sood, PhD and Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD).

BOTTOM LINE
Your extreme mask mandates for children, including 2 year olds, exceeds any level of mandate seen during COVID-19's peak last year. Children ages 0-5 have been in childcare centers for the past 15 months without masks. You have no proof that these mandates are necessary to keep childcare centers and schools open. You are not keeping the wellbeing of our children in mind.

You're forcing these extreme mandates on our families despite scientific evidence that the risk to toddlers and young children of COVID-19 is infinitesimally small, while the harm of masking is potentially enormous.

Our 2, 3, and 4-year-old children are developing socially, emotionally, and mentally. There is NO SCIENCE to back up your insistence on masking them all day at day care and preschool. As their parents, we know your unscientific decision will irreversibly hurt our children's futures, and we demand you reverse your position.