I hope the title got your attention. I’m not talking about the “traditional” definition of child abuse, but rather the practice of forcing children from about age 2 up to 18 to wear masks.

This is supposed to be protective, but no one quite specifies who is being protected and from what. That’s aside from the whole issue of what kind of masks people are wearing and that other than N95 medical grade and surgical masks, they are useless.

A quick review, a N95 mask protects the wearing from outside threats, although maybe not viruses. A surgical mask mask protect the outside world from the wearer. That’s why doctor wear them, to protect their patients from infection during operations, examinations, and other procedures. The same reason that doctors wear gloves, although gloves also protect the care provider.

Keep in mind that unless a child has some rare pre existing medical conditions they are pretty much immune from Covid 19. Even if they do test positive, they don’t seem to become symptomatic. Nor can they spread the virus to their grandparents via hugs.

Of course the genius non medically trained members of the public claimed the opposite and people refused to see their grandkids other than via Zoom for over a year. During the Zoom sessions some grandparents insisted on wearing their masks while sitting in their parlors. Because apparently they don’t know the difference between a real virus and a computer virus.

All of which brings me to this study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics.

Experimental Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Content in Inhaled Air With or Without Face Masks in Healthy Children

Discussion

The limitations of the study were its short-term nature in a laboratory-like setting and the fact that children were not occupied during measurements and might have been apprehensive. Most of the complaints reported by children³ can be understood as consequences of elevated carbon dioxide levels in inhaled air. This is because of the dead-space volume of the masks, which collects exhaled carbon dioxide quickly after a short time. This carbon dioxide mixes with fresh air and elevates the carbon dioxide content of inhaled air under the mask, and this was more pronounced in this study for younger children.

This leads in turn to impairments attributable to hypercapnia. A recent review⁶ concluded that there was ample evidence for adverse effects of wearing such masks. We suggest that decision-makers weigh the hard evidence produced by these experimental measurements accordingly, which suggest that children should not be forced to wear face masks.

Read the entire study at the link, including the additional tables, charts, and comments on the right side of the page.

On reflection, maybe forcing children at little risk from Covid 19 to wear masks that don’t provide protection and appear to be harmful does fit the traditional definition of child abuse. d

I wonder what would happen if parents of school children forced to wear masks filed complaints with the child protective agencies in their states?