Dear Chancellor and Superintendent,

I am writing in response to the mask mandate you have ordered for the 2021/2022 school year. I am extremely disappointed that you have mandated that masks be worn by anyone, especially school aged children and pre-schoolers. I am not anti-mask, but I support parental rights and choice regarding the health of our children. 

What studies/data/information are you using to support this mandate? The CDC has given guidance in support of masking at schools; however this guidance is just that – guidance, not a mandate. The CDC has offered zero relevant research to support their guidance. In fact, the only two studies conducted on the efficacy of masks worn by children were conducted using N95 masks (the ‘gold standard’ of masks, which almost no children are wearing in real life). A mandate that is based on almost zero scientific research on the efficacy of masks when used by children is not reasonable. Despite consistently hearing the phrase ‘follow the science’, there really is no science that supports mandating mask wearing for children.

Although the CDC recommends mask wearing for children over age two, the WHO does not. The WHO does not recommend masks wearing at all for children age five and under. The WHO also opposes mask mandates for children of any age and instead recommends an age-based approach regarding guidance for mask wearing. By mandating masks for our children, you have decided to adopt the opinion of one health organization over another, even with the lack of scientific research and data.

Not only is there a lack is scientific study of this topic, there are some very common sense concerns that many parents share. Most are associated with the fact that masks interfere with communication and learning, particularly in our younger and special needs children. Part of learning and perfecting speech, which is ongoing through elementary school, includes lip-reading and seeing facial expressions  and cues. All of this is hindered, if not completely thwarted, through mandated mask use. Even proponents of mask use, including Dr. Baback Jarvis, Professor of Medicine, University of California – San Francisco, have admitted masks can impair communication, especially for young children. Dr. Javid stated, “Masks interfere with lip-reading, which has a major impact on communication.” 

While I appreciate the flexibility of reassessing the mask mandate each week, the threshold you have set seems unattainable and by this requirement, you have essentially set a mask mandate for the entire school year.  Not only is seven new cases per 100,000 population extremely low, this number is based on the entire population, mostly consisting of adults, who have a much higher infection rate than children. 

Significant  evidence exists that the risk of COVID-19 to children is very low. Out of the over 600,000 American deaths from this virus, less than 340 have been children (of that number, ten were in Maryland). Until recently, no research had been conducted on these cases; therefore we did not know if the majority of these children suffered from co-morbidities. 

We now know the answer to this question, as Dr. Marty Makary, Johns Hopkins University, and his team recently studied insurance information from these cases. They found that out of the 335 children who died while infected with COVID-19 in the United States, 100% suffered from a pre-existing condition. This data shows that healthy children are not at risk of death from this virus. And isn’t that what we are trying to prevent? Of course no one wants to be sick, from anything at any time, but that is not reality. In life we get sick. We stay home, rest, take medication, drink fluids, and we recover. Why should we force our healthy  children to wear masks over their faces when they are not any more risk from  this virus than they are from any other virus? Masking should be optional. It should be a choice that parents and guardians make for their children, based on their children’s individual health status.

We also have real-life data to support rescinding the mask mandate. Many of our children attended AOB-affiliated camps this summer. When the Maryland state of emergency was rescinded and masks were no longer required at AOB camps, the majority of children at our camp no longer wore masks. From 1 July through the end of camp on 13 August, not only were there were no outbreaks of COVID-19, I am unaware of any cases of the virus at the camp at all. This was a  time when the Delta variant was spreading. This is a real-life study that shows mask mandates are not necessary. I suspected similar results at other AOB summer camps, as I did not hear any news stories citing outbreaks or high transmission rates at AOB summer camps, or any summer camps.

Please consider this information and the full spectrum of information and data specific to the COVID-19 risks  to children. The decision to mask or not mask a child should be made by the people responsible for for that child’s health – the parents or guardians. Please rescind this mask mandate and let the parents decide what is best for our children!

Thank You,

Jennifer Fold

Dear Constituents and Educators,

I am writing to oppose all mandatory covid measures such as vaccinations and masking. 

This is a time when looking at science over politics is of extreme importance. Please consider the following;

-99.9294% of the population is not at risk for having serious health outcomes from Covid-19, with children and youth having an even lower risk. By imposing draconian mandates, we are harming our children instead of allowing them to achieve herd immunity and thereby protect the elder and immunocompromised people in our communities. 

- The vaccines do not prevent, and in fact exacerbate the spread of Covid-19 as has been demonstrated in this August 10th preprint paper by the prestigious Oxford University Clinical Research Group which demonstrated that vaccinated individuals carry 251 times the viral load of Covid-19 in their nostrils compared to unvaccinated individuals. delivery.php (ssrn.com)

-These Covid-19 vaccines have incurred more injuries and deaths than all other vaccines combined in the last 20 years as reported on VAERS. Please note that this 2010 federal study commissioned by HHS by Harvard consultants for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality concluded that fewer than 1% of cases are reported on VAERS, making the number of injuries and deaths significantly higher than reported. Electronic Support for Public Health–Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (ESP:VAERS) (ahrq.gov)

-The vaccine does not lower the likelihood of severe outcome from Covid-19. In fact, as this study demonstrates, vaccinated individuals have a 6 times higher death rate from the Covid variant. SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation (publishing.service.gov.uk)

-Masks do not prevent the spread of infection and are harmful to the physical and emotional health of children and adults.

wearing a face mask, including scientifically verified reduction is blood oxygen level:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29395560/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32590322/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15340662/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26579222/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31159777/

Cloth Mask Study

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/

SOME of the mask studies on efficacy:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.01.20049528v1

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.30.20047217v2

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2749214

https://www.cmaj.ca/content/188/8/567

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5779801/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19216002/

https://aaqr.org/articles/aaqr-13-06-oa-0201.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/

https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/65/11/1934/4068747

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bio/23/2/23_61/_pdf/-char/en

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01658736

https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/0195-6701(91)90148-2/pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2493952/pdf/annrcse01509-0009.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20200717141836/https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data

https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25776/rapid-expert-consultation-on-the-effectiveness-of-fabric-masks-for-the-covid-19-pandemic-april-8-2020

https://www.nap.edu/read/25776/chapter/1#6

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article

https://academic.oup.com/annweh/article/54/7/789/202744

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6599448/

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1342

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00392-020-01704-y

https://clinmedjournals.org/articles/jide/journal-of-infectious-diseases-and-epidemiology-jide-6-130.php?jid=jide

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1130147308702355

Thank you for standing for science, freedom and the people,

--

Dr. Sarah Lowenstein

Violist

Violin and Viola Faculty

Preparatory Faculty- Peabody Conservatory of Music 

www.sarahlowenstein.com