No, wearing a mask does not affect your ability to breathe or cause carbon dioxide poisoning. Yet, these are two myths that have continued to circulate on social media throughout the coronavirus pandemic. 

As I have stated before, social media is mostly gossip and contains very few facts.  Therefore, let's search for the truth.

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Do Masks Make It Hard to Breathe? 
Some people feel as if it is difficult to breathe when wearing a mask, and they therefore assume that it is the mask that is causing them to have trouble breathing.  When in fact, it is simply their psychological perception that they're having trouble breathing.  Masks do not interfere with breathing.  As Christopher Ewing, a lung specialist from Alberta, Canada, explained,
 
“Most of us aren’t used to wearing face masks, and the sensation of having a mask on your face might make someone anxious or uncomfortable.  [a person’s breathing] … can also be influenced by the mind….” [for example] “…when we’re feeling discomfort, even subconsciously, it can change the way we breathe.”
 
I personally have allergy-induced asthma.  I walk for three hours for exercise and even sing while I walk.  (I’m a terrible singer, but no one can hear me outside—thank goodness.)  The point is that, yes, you can wear a mask and it will not interfere with your exercise or your daily activities.  If I'm inside a public building all day, I wear an N-95 mask all day.  When I walk, I wear an N-95 mask while I walk.  A mask covering your mouth and nose does not interfere with your ability to breathe.
 
 
Do Masks Cause Carbon Dioxide Poisoning?
As to the fear of carbon dioxide poisoning, Dr. Minh Quang Nghi, part of Texas Health Physicians Group, explains that even when we breathe without a mask, we are breathing a small amount of CO2 back into our lungs.  It’s part of the normal process of breathing.  It’s not harmful.

“Everyone rebreathes a small amount of their own CO2 with each breath….  Exhaled air, although containing some CO2, still contains a good amount of breathable air.  …a mask would not trap enough in the measured level of CO2 to cause a clinically significant change [poisoning].”
 
So, no, wearing a mask does not cause you to have trouble breathing or cause carbon dioxide poisoning.  That’s just gossip off the Internet from people trying to get you not to wear a mask. 
 
Always question what you read or hear.  Check the facts.  Each time I write, I give you links and encourage you to go and read the research and articles that I’m quoting.  Both of these doctors were quoted on Healthline, a good, reliable medical site, not a political site trying to get you to vote for a particular candidate. 
 
Evaluate the experts.  Is the expert you are reading politically motivated?  One doctor, who spread lies on the Internet about masks causing carbon dioxide poisoning, even had his license revoked.  So, be careful when turning to social media, especially politically sponsored sites.
 
Two experts are not enough.  Let’s also look at the research. 
 
 
What Does Research Tell Us?
Dr. Michael Campos, a pulmonologist at Miami VA Medical Center and University of Miami Hospital went one step further and tested the belief that masks do not make it hard to breathe.  Dr. Campos conducted research comparing fifteen healthy participants and fifteen military veterans.  The veterans all had severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with lung function below 50 percent.  Each participant in the study wore a face mask for 30 minutes, walked with a mask on for 6 minutes, and then took a blood test.  The blood tests showed that there was no change in oxygen or CO2 levels after wearing a mask or exercising.
 
Dr. Campos did find from his research though, that
 
“the discomfort some people feel using a mask is due to anxiety, claustrophobia, or even a neurological response to hotter than normal air touching the face, all of which can cause a ‘perceived difficulty in breathing.’”
 
So, the panic sensation that you are feeling about your ability to breathe when wearing a mask is merely psychological.  As a psychologist, I can also state that yes, you can cause yourself to have difficulty breathing just because you are anti-mask or have a fear of wearing a mask.  This is true for children as well as for adults.  Children are heavily influenced by parents. Therefore, if you are anti-mask, then your child will have more trouble adjusting to and wearing a mask at school.  Children often follow the behavior of adults.
  
One of the first steps you can take in helping someone to overcome this feeling of anxiety about wearing a mask is to explain the facts—wearing a mask does not make it difficult for you to breathe.  With children, you might also go on to explain that many adults wear a mask as part of their job.
 
Even before COVID-19, surgeons wore tight-fitting masks all day long to protect their patients.  Emergency room doctors and nurses are wearing tight fitting masks, and, in some cases, face shields all day to protect themselves from COVID-19.  Day after day, even in the doctor’s office, doctors and nurses wear masks to protect themselves from those who come in infected with COVID-19.  Children and teachers also need to wear masks to protect themselves from COVID-19 in the classroom.
 
Some people try to say, but “it's different with children.”  Again, go to the experts.  Dr. Dickinson and Dr. Guilbert with “Mask Mythbusters” do an excellent job answering questions from parents.  I encourage you to go and read their list of questions and answers.  They say that masks do not make it harder for children to breathe and do not cause carbon dioxide poisoning.  They go one step further and clarify that masks also do not restrict children’s lung development.

 
For More Information: Do Mask Mandates Cause Psychological or Medical Problems for Children in School?

 
With all the evidence presented, some parents are still asking, are you sure that I shouldn’t apply for a mask exemption for my child for school?
 
There are few if any reasons for children to have a mask exemption. Dr. Raed Dweik, MD, a pulmonologist and the chair of Cleveland Clinic’s Respiratory Institute, answered this very question.
 
“At the Respiratory Institute, we’ve taken the position that there is virtually no circumstance that warrants an exemption from wearing a mask based on lung disease. Many patients with significant respiratory issues are able to wear masks without difficulty. Even patients on the lung transplant waiting list who arguably have the severest forms of advanced lung disease are able to wear masks. If they can do it, anybody can. As for CO2 retention, I have not seen any evidence for it with any mask type, including N95 masks. It certainly does not apply to cloth masks or any masks that do not provide a tight seal.” 
 
So, stop listening to the scare campaigns on social media.  Masks do not harm children, and yes, children and teachers can wear masks safely all day at school. 
 
Notice that we are not checking with politicians or the gossips on social media.  Breathing is a medical question; therefore, we will turn only to medical experts.  I have also chosen experts who are not a part of the political scene.  Yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for a medical question, I want a medical answer.  As I have said before, when your child is sick, you do not take them down to the governor’s office for medical care.  Therefore, I will turn to politicians for political questions and to medical experts for medical questions.
 
Listen to “real” experts.  Protect your child from COVID-19.  Wear a mask.
​
 
For More Information: Coronavirus Is Raging Through the Schools. We Must Have Mask and Vaccine Mandates to Protect the Children.

After a year and a half of COVID-19, many parents are asking, exactly what should my child be learning this year?  Many parents are being confronted with requests to have their child “redo” a year in school.  At the same time, many other parents are complaining that the school has skipped over a year and left their child behind.
 
As one parent said, “He wasn’t in kindergarten last year, and now they're demanding that he start reading.”
 
As I explained in an earlier blog post, “redoing” a grade is not a good idea.  Instead, what we need to do is reteach the material that was missed.

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For More Information: Should Children “Redo” a Year Because of the Pandemic? 
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Schools should also not simply skip over a year and think that students will figure it out as they go along.  No, schools must reteach.
 
So, the question then is:  What is the best way to reteach in order to bring students back up to where they should be in school?

Reteaching does work. 
If we use better teaching methods in the classroom, we can bring children up one to two to three grade levels in only a few months.  At my reading clinic, I had two struggling students move up two grade levels in reading after only 48 hours of instruction. 
 
Yes, we can correct the educational problems that were created by the coronavirus pandemic.  We just need to use the correct teaching methods.  Phonics and whole language are not the correct teaching methods for struggling at-risk students. 
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For More Information: Reading Wars are Over!  Phonics Failed.  Whole Language Failed.  Balanced Literacy Failed. Who Won?  It Certainly Wasn’t the Students.
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Phonics and Whole Language Were Failing Before the Pandemic
Dr. Jeffrey S. Bowers, professor at the University of Bristol’s School of Psychological Science, Bristol Neuroscience states that we cannot expect phonics, whole language, or balanced literacy to help struggling students learn how to read.  In his research, he explains how these methods have been proven not to work with struggling students. 
 
Therefore, just placing children back in the classroom, with or without masks, will not automatically teach them to read.  While we are teaching children to wash their hands (Yes, I think teaching children to wash their hands is important.  Wearing masks is important, too), we also need to change how we teach children to read.
 
What Bowers and others are saying is that you can not blame the pandemic or the students.  This problem existed long before COVID-19. 
 
Gerald Hughes, Director of the Neuro-Linguistic Learning Center, explains in his book, Gifted--Not Broken: Overcoming Dyslexia, ADD and Other Learning Challenges, states that long-standing research shows that phonics programs have little benefit: 
 
“20% of all children will show little or no lasting improvement in reading ability using phonics-based programs….using a phonics-based program on this particular group of children, is more than likely doomed to failure because it is focused on the very weaknesses of the child. Experience has repeatedly shown that when subjected to an extensive phonics-based program, many of these children will experience frustration, anger and ultimately continued failure.”

So, what we are saying is that schools are using an ineffective teaching method that fails students, and then blames those students for failing. 

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For More Information: Is Teaching Decoding and Encoding A Form of Phonics?  No! 
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​What Should Kindergarteners Be Learning?
Back to the plea for help from the parent of a first grader who is being pushed into reading without the benefit of kindergarten.  No, the answer is not to send the child back to kindergarten.  The answer is also not to push the child straight into reading. 
The answer is to teach the child to work with letter sounds.  Then, and only then, will the child be ready to learn to read.
 
Learn The Alphabet: Capitals and Lower-Case Letters
First, start by making sure the child understands the alphabet letters, both capitals and lower-case letters.  By understanding, I mean that the child is able to do more than just sing the alphabet song.  I love the alphabet song, but it will not teach children how to read.
 
Four- and five-year-olds should be working on consonant letter sounds instead of trying to learn to read.  Some children naturally read at four and five years of age, and that’s fine. What I am saying is, do not push reading too early. 
 
Teach consonant sounds first. Memorizing a word list will not teach children how to read.  Teaching children to work with letter sounds and to understand the sounds that letters represent is the path to successful reading.  If your school is sending home a list of words for your child to memorize each week, tell them they are doing it wrong.  That is not the way to teach children to read.
 
To succeed in the classroom, students need to go beyond just recognizing that letters represent sounds.  They need to learn how to work with letter sounds. 
 
Letters in the English alphabet have both a LETTER NAME and a LETTER SOUND.  In order to read, write, and understand English, children must learn both the letter name and the letter sound.  For example, when we spell a word, we use the letter name.  When we read, even when we read silently, we use letter sounds, saying only the sound each letter represents.  It is important that you teach children how to say the letter sound correctly.  Remember, we are training the brain, so we want to train the brain to hear and identify the letter sound correctly. My reading clinic also uses auditory, visual, and hands-on teaching techniques for helping children learn tricky letter sounds.
 
 
Handwriting Is Essential
Handwriting and reading are connected, so, if you want to teach a child to read, you must also teach a child to write.  Improving a child’s handwriting is one of the first steps in helping a child learn to read. 
 
The way a child writes or shapes letters is very important.  Researchers Karin James and Laura Engelhardt conducted neurological research that showed the benefit of teaching children to correctly shape letters when they write.  Improved handwriting is the pathway to better reading.
 
Neurological research also shows that typing on a computer does not give the same benefit that handwriting does.  If you want to teach your child to read, first, teach your child how to write and shape the alphabet letters correctly.
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For More Information: Correct Handwriting Helps Children Learn to Read
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Why Should Students Spend Time Building Words? 
Teaching the alphabet and handwriting are just the beginning.  Kindergartners should also learn how to build words from letter sounds.
 
The concept of building words is a better teaching method because, as Dr. Nadine Gaab from the Children’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School, explains, students must learn how to “map” oral sounds to written letters. 
 
Dr. Gaab goes on to explain that relating letter sounds to written language is one of the essential elements required before a child can learn to read.  Preschool children, early readers, and even adults have shown positive improvement in reading skills upon receiving training in letter-sound relationships.  A research team from the McGovern Institute for Brain Research also stated that the sound structure of spoken words must be “mapped” onto the letters of the alphabet before children can learn to read
 
“Sound training,” as Dr. Gaab explains, is the first step in learning to read. 
 
Children automatically learn a spoken language just by listening to their parents speak, but children do not learn to read just by listening to someone else read.  Children must learn and understand letter-sound relationships so that they can “map” or relate the oral sounds of spoken language to the corresponding printed letters that represent those sounds
  
This is one of the reasons why vowel clustering is so much more successful with at-risk readers than phonics.  Phonics does not teach students to build words.  All children need to learn about letter-sound relationships, but for children who struggle, letter-sound relationship training is essential.  Vowel clustering provides this letter-sound training by teaching students to build words. 
 
 
How Does Vowel Clustering Teach Building Words?           
Remember, letters represent sounds.  For learning the sounds, we mostly use the lowercase letters.  Do not let your students substitute capital letters into the words.  When students substitute a capital letter in the middle of a word, it usually means that they do not know the lower-case letter.  Teach lower-case letters.  We also know that vowels are one of the key factors in how a word is pronounced, so we want to teach letter sounds in relationship to vowels.  Building words with a common vowel sound helps students visualize how words are formed.  
 
When I teach vowel clustering, I teach students to build words, such as with the sound at.  Students start with:  at, bat, cat….  Then they change to:  an, can, fan….  Also use ap for cap, map, ….  We begin teaching letter-sound relationships with simple one syllable words.  The main rule for word building by sound is that the vowel sound stays constant--does not change.  For example, building words with the short a vowel sound would mean that you cannot insert such words as able, cake, car….  Yes, these words use the letter a, but they use different sounds for the letter a.  Remember, there are seven sounds for the letter a and 22 different ways to make those sounds.  In word building by sound, you teach one sound at a time.
 
Do not fall into the trap of teaching letter sounds with multiple vowels or by focusing on the first letter in the word.  This is often done in school.  It is wrong.  The dictionary arranges words in alphabetical order based on the beginning letter, but the brain does not.  Do not try to teach:  ball, bell, big, bog, bug.  At-risk students will be totally confused because this is not how the brain organizes letter sounds. 
 
The brain focuses on the vowel sound in the word.  Therefore, we need to teach children to read by focusing on common vowel sounds:  at, cat, fat, hat, mat….  If we teach using the organizational structure that the brain uses, it makes it easier for at-risk students to learn.  This is what vowel clustering does.
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For More Information: Grade Retention Doesn't Work; Better Teaching Methods Work
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Students must see, indeed, visualize, how words change in spelling, pronunciation, and in meaning while they are working with very simple words.  The process of writing and correctly shaping letters on a manuscript page helps students accurately identify letters in words as they read
 
Teach letter sound relationships and basic spelling one sound at a time, particularly with the vowel sounds, because we are training the brain.  Spelling and handwriting should always be taught at the same time as reading.  When you have students build words by sound, have the student read the words on their word list.  Then, call out each word and have the student spell each word on their list. Make sure the student knows the definition for each word and can orally use the word in a sentence.  When the student writes, make sure that the student is shaping all letters correctly.  Words or letters sprawled across an unlined page do not count as handwriting. 
 
When we are building words by sound, the vowel sound stays the same even though the consonant sounds are changing. You want the student to learn to work with words, changing letters to make new words, but you do not want the student to memorize a word list.  Memorizing is the wrong way to teach.  Instead, we want to train the brain to recognize letter-sound combinations.
 
 
Will My Child Ever Catch up from the Pandemic?
Yes, we can teach at-risk students to read.  Neuroimaging studies show that students who have failed for multiple years can be taught to read.  Even students who fell behind during the pandemic can be brought back up to their age-level in reading.
 
My own work with vowel clustering demonstrates that students who have failed for multiple years can definitely be taught to read. 

• A student diagnosed with ADHD and failing in reading moved up two grade levels in one year.
• One student started at the pre-primer level (pre-K) and ended the year at the third-grade reading level.
• A second grader started the year reading below first grade and ended at the fourth-grade level.

 
Don’t let your child’s education suffer from the coronavirus pandemic.  Insist that your school teach using methods that have been proven to work.  It’s time for a change.

Misinformation is not just a difference of opinion.  Misinformation can kill. 

• A 15-year-old girl died this past week from COVID in Pensacola, Florida.  She wasn't vaccinated.  Her father regrets not having gotten his daughter vaccinated and said, “It’s something that’s going to be stuck with me for my whole life, thinking maybe I should have done that sooner….  Maybe I could’ve done something to help prevent this.”

 

• A 15-year-old boy died on September 5th from COVID in Louisville, Kentucky.  He wasn't vaccinated.  His father said, "I'm going to do my part....  I’m going to go take my vaccine….  As bad as it sounds, once it affects them personally, then they'll change their minds."  The father is also now encouraging everyone to wear a mask. 

  
These are just two tragedies that might have been prevented.  One father said he had been waiting for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to give final approval on the vaccine.  The FDA granted full approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on August 23, 2021, and 15-year-olds have been eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine since May 12, 2021.
 
Why did these parents wait?  Why did they risk their children's lives?  I contend because they listened to misinformation.
 
Dangerous Misinformation

Let’s look at an example of dangerous misinformation.  This is an example of a false claim—misinformation with the intent to mislead others. Reports such as this one have many parents confused about what is true and what is false.  Remember, this internet example has been proven to be false—a lie.  Tom Kertscher wrote this report on the false claim:
 
“A healthy Colorado teen died two days after receiving a coronavirus vaccine, according to a number of websites, including the conspiracy oriented InfoWars. This was the headline on WeLoveTrump.com, which a reader asked us to check: 

“15-Year Old Boy Passes Away from Heart Attack Two Days After Pfizer COVID-19 Experimental Jab."

“The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.” 

As far as anyone knows and could discover, there was no Colorado teen who died from the vaccine.  This was an out-and-out lie to intentionally mislead people, especially parents who were nervous or afraid of the vaccine.  Why would someone intentionally do this?  This is misinformation of a most evil nature.  As I mentioned at the beginning, young people are dying because they have not received the vaccine. 
 
As a psychologist who works with children, I know exactly how damaging misinformation can be. I direct a reading clinic for children who are struggling or failing in reading.  We've been wonderfully successful and have even had failing children move up as much as four grade levels in reading in one year.  Yet, I will never forget a young man who tried to commit suicide one afternoon because of misinformation that he had been told the day before by an adult not associated with my program. 

 
Yes, misinformation can kill.
 
Misinformation is not some political game or a simple political difference of opinion.  Children are dying, and while children are dying, politicians, people who oppose the vaccine, and those who oppose wearing masks are spreading misinformation and demanding their “freedom to choose.”
 
 
When will children be allowed “to choose” to live?
 
Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, explained why the coronavirus is so much more dangerous for children at school this year than last year.  As he said in a recent interview, delta is more dangerous for children because it's so much easier to catch the virus in the classroom.

 
“…more than 400 children have died of COVID-19. And right now we have almost 2,000 kids in the hospital, many of them in ICU, some of them under the age of four….  This means that “kids are very seriously at risk….”
 
According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), as of September 18, 2021, 159 children between the ages of 0 to 4 years old have died from COVID and 357 have died between the ages of 5 and 18 years old.  That is a total of 486 children. 
 
Yes, I know that there are people gossiping on the Internet claiming that 486 deaths is not a significant number.  They say that more children die from other causes and then go on to justify their claim by telling how many died from guns, auto accidents….  The old saying that two wrongs do not make a right still applies.  It is time to stop gossiping on social media and do something because….
 
COVID-19 is spreading through the schools like wildfire.

COVID-19 can be very dangerous for children.

COVID-19 definitely affects children’s ability to learn.

 
Earlier Post: We Must Have Mask and Vaccine Mandates to Protect Children
 

Would stopping the spread of misinformation prevent children from dying?

The experts – the people who know what they’re talking about – believe that it would.  Dr. Joseph Khabbaza, M.D., critical care specialist and pulmonary care expert at Cleveland Clinic, does not specifically talk about misinformation, but he does explain how important it is for us to use preventive measures, which are often the target of misinformation.  Dr. Khabbaza says that:
 
“The more things you do that are meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the more successful they’ll be….  So get vaccinated, first and foremost, then keep taking the actions that we know will keep us more protected from infection: masking, social distancing, hand-washing, staying outdoors, opening windows, and the like.”
 
Therefore, preventive measures, such as wearing a mask and getting vaccinated, are extremely important to preventing the spread of COVID-19, delta variant.  If misinformation keeps people from getting vaccinated or from wearing a mask, then yes, misinformation is extremely dangerous and should be stopped.

 
How can we tell if information on social media is true or false?

We're going to examine two examples of bad social media misinformation.  My purpose is to give you some guidelines on how to evaluate what you read on social media, so I have picked two really bad examples—out-and-out lies.
 
First, let's go back to our previous example of a false claim or lie that was placed on Facebook.  Remember, this claim has been proven to be wrong and has since been removed from Facebook.
 
"15-Year Old Boy Passes Away from Heart Attack Two Days After Pfizer COVID-19 Experimental Jab."
 
 
What alerts us to the fact that this is misinformation?

1. The claim did not include a link to further information. Usually, when you read a bold statement on social media, there should be a link to send you to further explanation or evidence.  If you are reading a bold statement such as the one above and are not able to find evidence or justification for it, it is most likely a lie.  If someone actually had evidence, they would share it with everyone.  Remember, gossip and lies do not have evidence to support them.
2. Evaluate the site that you're reading.  Is the site primarily for entertainment purposes or for factual information?  We all read gossipy social media sites occasionally, but before you believe what is printed or spoken, check the source.  Is the site primarily a biased source, a gossip source, or a political source?  Unfortunately, the majority of social media sites are biased.  Political sites often distort, even just a little bit, to make their position or candidate sound better.  COVID-19 is a health issue, not a political one, so turn to health sites for health issues.  You do not take your children to a politician when they are sick.  You go to the doctor, so go to a doctor for information about your child’s health.  Stop trusting politicians with your child’s health.
3. Check the source, the author of the information.  Is this person an expert? This is one of our biggest problems with misinformation.  Most of us can tell whether a site offers evidence or comes from an unbiased source, but how do we tell the difference among rival experts?  Let's look at our second example of misinformation.  A lawyer used misinformation from an online source in court for a lawsuit.  Devon Link from USA Today writes this report:

 
“On July 19, attorney Thomas Renz filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of America’s Frontline Doctors – an organization known for spreading misinformation about vaccines and COVID-19 treatments.
 
“In the complaint, Renz described an analysis from an unnamed whistleblower that claimed to find evidence there were actually 45,000 deaths related to COVID-19 vaccines. This finding is based on the whistleblower's alleged expert analysis of unverified data.”
 
Several fact checkers investigated the lawyer’s claim and found absolutely no evidence to support the misinformation that he quoted in court. Yet, the misinformation is still being shared online, even after it has been proven to be false--a lie.
 
Let me quote one report that shows how this story is ongoing because misinformation from this one lie is still being spread on social media.  This story refers to the whistleblower account as the “BitChute video.”

 
“…the BitChute video has been viewed at least 13,000 times, and has been amplified by the Daily Expose and other disinformation sites. Other sources of misinformation shared the video. They include Denis Rancourt, a former professor of physics at the University of Ottawa, who shared the video in a post with at least 555 retweets. Rancourt has previously shared misinformation about face masks ….  The video has also appeared on Rumble.
 
“Anti-vaccine actors often intentionally distort data published on VAERS, which was set up for early warning purposes and may contain “incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable” information. VAERS reports have frequently been cited in misleading ways to spread misinformation about the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines.”
 
 
Do you see how the lie just keeps spreading from one social media site to another?  It’s still ongoing today, right this minute.  Once it starts on social media, misinformation is very hard to stop.  There are parents who are still refusing to get their children vaccinated because they believe this lie.  Yes, misinformation can and does kill children.
 
So, how do you tell a good expert from a bad expert? 

With my own writing, I try to be very accurate.  I check and double check my sources.  I'm a psychologist, and I am writing as a psychologist.  I'm trying to present the best, most accurate information that I can find.

Unfortunately, as our earlier example from the courtroom shows, it is hard to tell when someone is telling the truth.  Just checking someone’s credentials is often not enough.
There is no clear-cut answer for deciding which expert to believe.  My response is:  Would you trust this person with your child’s life?  Would you call this person if your child was sick?  If your child does get COVID, is this where you will take your child for treatment?
 
If not, then I wouldn’t trust them with my child’s life because that is what you are doing when you fall victim to these social media sites that thrive on spreading misinformation.
 
Don't be a victim of misinformation.  Evaluate everything you read online and in print.  Also, evaluate what you hear on the radio and on TV.

Don't fall victim to misinformation on social media.  The life you save may be your own or your child's.  Don't be swayed by gossip.  Search for the truth.

How can any adult justify laughing or heckling a student who stands up to explain how he felt when his grandmother died?  Yes, the video has been all over the Internet, but just in case you missed it, this is one video you should definitely watch. 
 
Adults Should Never Laugh at Children

It would have been rude to even laugh at an adult in such a situation, but to laugh at a young person is ten times worse.  What kind of person would do that?
 
Grady Knox, an 11th grader, was standing up in front of a roomful of people talking to the Rutherford County School Board in Tennessee explaining why he thought it was important for the schools to require masks.  This was his right.  He has a right to give his opinion, and he has a right to receive respect while speaking. 
 
We always tell young people that they must show adults respect.  Yet, where was Grady Knox’s respect?  He was heckled by people who scream and yell day and night about their freedom.  Where was Grady Knox’s freedom? 
 
If this had taken place at school between students, the laughing, heckling students would have been marched to the principal’s office.  Almost every school has an anti-bullying policy.  Yes, the rude members of the audience were trying to get Grady Knox to stop speaking--that is a form of bullying.
 
In his speech, Grady Knox said,
 
"This time last year, my grandmother, who was a former teacher at the Rutherford County school system died of COVID because someone wasn't wearing a mask…."
 
He actually had to pause and turn around to look at the audience members sitting behind him with their professional, commercially made signs.  They were making so much noise he couldn’t continue, but he did continue.  As a psychologist, I am so very proud of this young man.  He did not let a group of adult bullies stop him from speaking at the school board meeting.
 
Then, he went on to say,
 
“As long as I can get my message across, I don't really think it matters what the crowd thinks of me….  Overall, they're not the ones making the decisions for the school.”
 
At my reading clinic, we talk every single day about how important it is to be kind and supportive of one another.  I would never allow students to laugh at another student, no matter what the reason.  Laughing at others is wrong.
 
Rutherford County's school board later announced they would be adopting a “temporary 30 day mask requirement” for all schools.  It’s a start, but it will take more than a mere 30 days to protect the children.
 
Yes, I've talked before about how important it is to have mask mandates in our schools.  We need all students, teachers, staff, and parents wearing masks when they come inside school buildings.  We also need more young people like Grady Knox, who will stand up to the bullies, say what needs to be said, and continue to fight for the health and safety of everyone.  Thank you, Grady Knox.  May you always be an example to others. 
 
Mask Mandates Do Not Cause Medical or Psychological Harms to Children

We Must Have Mask Mandates to Protect Children from the Delta Variant

Can you imagine writing a letter to your children saying that you’re sorry you are sending them to school?  One mother did. 

“An open letter to my daughters:

Dear Charlie and Sophie,

I’m sorry.

Tomorrow I have to send you back to school. I know that, as a first grader and kindergartner, you are not protected and cannot get the “shots” ….

I know I am sending you into a school where…  parents did not send them [other children] in masks…. teachers and officials at your school won’t be wearing masks either….  They’ll even ask you to take off your mask indoors so you can “breathe”

…  I am going to ask you to wear your mask anyway because I think we should try not to catch COVID….”
​
 
More than 500,000 children tested positive for coronavirus in the United States between August 5 and August 26.  

​Almost half of the cases (203,962) were during prime school start-up dates from August 19 to August 26, and it’s getting worse every day.  It seems that we are not sending our children back to school to get an education, we are sending them back to school to catch Covid-19—Delta variant.

A study just released on September 3, 2021, shows that the hospital rates for young people have skyrocketed for COVID-19 by jumping nearly 500% since late June.  This jump is mostly blamed on the Delta variant.  The study also found that adolescents aged 12 and up who were not vaccinated were ten times more likely to be hospitalized than adolescents who had received the vaccine.  This graphic from the study illustrates the problem: 

 









Why are so many more children getting COVID this year than last year?
The Delta variant is new. It is different from the coronavirus that we confronted last year in school.  The Delta variant is much more contagious and easier to catch.  It spreads more easily; even infants and toddlers can spread the Delta variant.
 
To illustrate how easily the Delta variant can spread in classrooms, let’s look at one careless, sad example. In this example, one teacher spread coronavirus to many students:
 
An unvaccinated teacher from Marin County, California decided to go ahead and go to school and teach one day even though she had a cough, slight fever, and a headache. During reading time, she decided to take her mask off to read to her students.  Although the students were wearing masks, 80% of the students sitting in the first two rows, those closest to the teacher while she was reading, later tested positive for COVID-19.  Four siblings of these infected students also came down with COVID.  Four parents of children who tested positive from this one classroom episode, also came down with COVID, and only one parent was unvaccinated.  Six students tested positive for COVID after a sleepover that was hosted by one of the students from the original class.  None of the students were eligible for vaccine because they were younger than 12 years old.  Of the 26 elementary students who caught COVID from this one unvaccinated teacher removing her mask to read a story, 18 of the students were tested and found to have the Delta variant.

This example shows how easily community spread gets started.  One unvaccinated teacher, who took her mask off only to read to her students, infected 26 elementary age students with COVID. Who knows how far it spread through the community? Classrooms have become incubators for COVID.  School classrooms are one of the primary places that children are now catching COVID-19. 
 
 
We must stop the spread of coronavirus among our children. 
 
Yes, I know, there are still people saying that COVID is not that bad and that it is not as serious for children. 
 
However, is that actually true?  Remember, I have talked about misinformation before.  We need to reexamine the facts.  We need to stop listening to people who do not know what they are talking about.  Just because you read it on the Internet, hear it on the radio, or see it on the TV does not make what the person is saying true.  In everything that I write, I give you the information’s actual source, and I encourage you to go to that original study or source and read the facts.  If you have nothing to hide, you have no reason not to show your sources and make it easy for others to also read those sources.  I always encourage my readers to check the sources, and I try to make it easy for you to find good quality information.  Dig a little deeper; insist on knowing the truth; don’t fall for misinformation or lies—children’s lives are at stake. 
 
The truth is that over 400 children have died from COVID-19 in the United States, and more are dying every day.  COVID is making schools a dangerous place for children. 
 
Why is Covid more dangerous for children this year than last year?
As I have said before, the Delta variant is not the same as the COVID-19 that children faced last year in school.  This is a more easily transmitted disease variant.  As Mark Wietecha, CEO of the Children's Hospital Association, explained,
 
“… many children hospitalized with COVID-19 now, likely driven by the Delta variant, are sicker than those who had contracted previous strains.” 
 
So, the Delta variant this year is more dangerous for children because (1) it’s easier to catch which means that more children are getting COVID this year than last and (2) because children are becoming “sicker” from COVID this year than last year. 
 
What are we as a nation doing about this increased risk and danger to our children?  We are demanding that they absolutely must attend in-class instruction with no guarantee of masks and no assurance that anyone will bother to get vaccinated.  In some states, governors and other politicians are even fighting tooth and nail to try and keep anyone from wearing a mask in school.  They say we need the “freedom” to choose.  Unfortunately, children younger than 12 years do not even have a choice about getting vaccinated to protect themselves; they’re not eligible.  Where is their freedom?
 
Remember, our earlier example with the unvaccinated teacher who took her mask off to read to the children?  Yes, she had “the freedom to choose.”  She chose not to wear a mask and not to get vaccinated which meant she thereby chose to infect 26 children with COVID-19, all under the age of 12.
 
Anytime you choose not to wear a mask, to take your mask off—even temporarily, or not to get vaccinated, you are choosing to expose an innocent child to COVID-19, either through classroom exposure, family, or community spread.  Either way, you are still responsible.  Your “freedom to choose” may seriously harm the life of a trusting child.
 
We need to start making wiser choices.  We as adults do not have the right to choose to make children sick and to endanger their lives.
 
Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, explained why Delta is so much more dangerous for children in a recent interview.
 
“…more than 400 children have died of COVID-19. And right now we have almost 2,000 kids in the hospital, many of them in ICU, some of them under the age of four….  This means that “kids are very seriously at risk….”
 
The Delta variant is more dangerous than a cold or the flu.  According to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report by the CDC, of those 2,000 children who are in the hospital, one-third are in intensive care (ICU).  Anytime a child is placed in ICU, it is serious. COVID affects all ages.  Even infants have been so seriously affected by Delta that they have had to be placed in ICU.  COVID is also causing many long-term health problems for children. 

 
What is long-term COVID?
 
Some children experience post-COVID conditions—new, returning, or even on-going health problems caused by COVID-19.

• One student went from playing on 3 basketball teams simultaneously to having trouble even walking for 10 minutes.  As her mother explained, "Her central nervous system has just been trashed. It's like a tornado just went through… No one really knows what the next steps are or how the recovery  looks…. "

 
Six months after COVID, the student has “… graduated from a liquid diet to rice, soup, and applesauce.”  Unfortunately, the doctors still do not know whether she will completely recover.  She did not have preexisting conditions. 
  
Covid patients are also showing cognitive problems that directly affect their ability to learn in the classroom.

• A 15-year-old explained that when he returned to school, class work that he had previously completed looked totally confusing to him; in fact, he was convinced that he had never even seen the paper before.  Yet, his teacher reminded him that before COVID-19, he had been acing this material. It wasn't just a cognitive “mix-up,” the student said numbers floated off the page in math class, and he actually inserted French phrases into his English assignment.  Before COVID, he was a top student.  Now, he asks, "Am I going to be able to be a good student ever again? Because this is really scary."

  
Dr. Molly Wilson-Murphy of Boston Children's Hospital contends that not only ICU patients can experience long-term COVID conditions.  As she states, some children start out with quite mild illnesses and then later develop long term symptoms.  Fatigue, headaches, brain fog, and issues with memory and concentration are common among long-term COVID patients.
 
Dr. Gary Kirkilas, a pediatrician at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, goes on to explain another long-term condition called MIS-C.
 
“… COVID-19 has been linked to a serious condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in which different organs such as the heart or brain become inflamed. This may occur weeks after a child has been infected, and as of late July the CDC has received reports of more than 4,400 children who have been diagnosed with the condition (which is known as MIS-C in children).”
 
So, you see, the “freedom to choose” has directly affected and changed many young people’s lives.
 
Physicians are not sure why some children get long-term COVID conditions and some do not, but it is clear that COVID-19 can be very serious for children.  The Delta variant is not like a common cold or even a seasonal flu. The Delta variant is a treacherous virus that can change a child's life forever.
 
Dr. Andrew E. Budson, M. D. writing for Harvard Health Publishing of the Harvard Medical School, says that:
 
“The COVID pandemic has now claimed as many American lives as World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War combined.  Most of these deaths are due to the well-known pulmonary complications of the coronavirus. It has become increasingly recognized, however, that the virus also attacks the nervous system. Doctors in a large Chicago medical center found that more than 40% of patients with COVID showed neurologic manifestations at the outset, and more than 30% of those had impaired cognition.”
 
Although some people who have recovered from COVID, including children, go and resume their daily lives without difficulty, there are many who do not.  Some have difficulty and struggle for long periods of time while others never recover.  Their lives are changed forever.  We need to stop and think about what we're sending children into when we send children into the classroom to confront the Delta variant.  COVID-19 can attack any child, and there is no way to determine how serious the results will be.
Any COVID patient placed in ICU is at high risk for brain damage.  It is particularly dangerous for children because their brains are still developing.  If “brain growth” is stunted or stopped, then the damage can be permanent.  One example is Nia Haughton, a 15-year-old survivor who still struggles to find the right words to say when she speaks and has a patchy memory.
 
“For days, her lungs labored to stave off collapse until the medical staff tried “proning” her for 16 hours a day.  … Nia was turned to lie on her front at a slight incline, but kept on ventilation…. This approach allows oxygen to be blasted to the back of a patient’s lungs…. after several days in recovery, her condition worsened once again. This time, it was her brain rather than her lungs….  After repeated, violent seizures … she was taken back into the ICU.  … Nia’s voice and behavior appeared to regress to a younger version of herself. 
 
Her mother said, “I don't know which was scarier, her being on the ventilator not being able to breathe, or the fact that she came out of it with a completely different personality….”
 
Even cases of mild COVID can still lead to brain damage. The cognitive effects of COVID on memory, attention, and executive function (the mental skills and processes that allow a person to think and get things done) can be extremely damaging to children.  A child who experiences a sustained attention loss from COVID will have trouble learning in the classroom.  In many of my reading blogs, I frequently talk about “changing the gray matter of the brain” and “rewiring the connections in the brain.”  This process is essential in order to teach children who struggle to learn to read.
  
Attention deficits - a child's ability to pay attention - can cause a child to have difficulty learning to read or be successful in the classroom.  Executive function is also affected by COVID. The mental wiring, connections in the brain, and the cognitive ability to think are essential for all learning that takes place in the classroom.
 
Yet, when we send children into the classroom without any kind of protection from COVID, no mask, no vaccines, then we are willingly endangering children's ability to learn. 
 
Wait!  Isn't the reason we're sending children to school because we want them to learn?  Unfortunately, by exposing children to COVID, we are destroying the very education we say that we want.
 
Delta is dangerous for children. 

Politicians can no longer say that it is okay to send children back to school because COVID-19 is not dangerous for children or claim that children do not catch COVID.  As the Broward County Public Schools in Florida reported, “… 357 students and employees have tested positive since the start of school.” 
​
Yes, reopening schools has caused a major surge in COVID-19. This surge directly affects children.  Each time you march in the street, stand at a microphone and demand freedom, protest mask or vaccine mandates, or refuse to get vaccinated or wear a mask because you say that you have the “freedom to choose,” you have stolen “life” from a child. 
 
What do We Know so far?

• COVID-19 is spreading through the schools like wildfire.
• COVID-19 can be very dangerous for children.
• COVID-19 definitely effects children’s ability to learn.

 
So, why are some parents, politicians, and in some cases even teachers fighting mask and vaccine mandates? 
 
We need both mask and vaccine mandates in all schools. 
 
 
Why do we need both mask and vaccine mandates?  Why are masks alone not enough?
 
Study after study shows that states with high vaccination rates have lower COVID-19 infections.  No, not zero but lower.  Vaccine mandates do save many children from COVID-19. 
 
In one study that measured COVID-19 cases among young people during a two-week period in August 2021, the number of children placed in the hospital was higher in states with low vaccination rates.  In states, where more people were vaccinated, COVID-19 cases were lower.  Children living in states with low vaccination rates were three times as likely to be placed in the hospital.  We must stop using children as political pawns.  We must have vaccine mandates to protect our children.  This graphic from the study shows the difference between being vaccinated and not being vaccinated.

 
Schoolwide vaccinations are essential for teachers, staff, custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers.  We cannot continue to play politics with children's lives.  We need nationwide vaccine mandates for all schools.
 
Unfortunately, vaccine mandates may not be enough, we also need nationwide mask mandates, especially since children younger than 12 are not eligible for the vaccine yet.  We must take every precaution to safeguard the lives of the children.

 
We need mask and vaccine mandates in all of our schools.
 
As Dr. Jonathan Reiner explained,
 
"The virus is raging in all these children who are unvaccinated, which is why in schools mask mandates are so important"…. "They have no other protection. They're literally sitting ducks."

To keep our children safe and to stop the Delta variant from spreading throughout our schools, let's examine why both mask and vaccine mandates would be better for our children than only one form of protection. 

 
What happens when schools do have mask and vaccine mandates?
 
Let's first look at a school that did not have either mask or vaccine mandates.

• Atlanta: Fulton County schools reported 1,022 positive cases for just the first week of classes.  They did not require masks at first but are now going to have universal masking throughout the school.  So far, they still do not have a vaccine mandate.

 
Will masks alone be enough?

• In Louisville, Kentucky, Jefferson County schools had 485 students test positive for COVID-19 just a mere week and a half after opening, and they required everyone to wear a mask.  Unfortunately, no, they did not require vaccinations, which meant that 2,282 students were sent home to quarantine.

 
What happens when schools require both mask and vaccine?

• Denver Public Schools decided they wanted to do something about COVID-19; therefore, they decided to start the school year in 2021 with a full vaccine mandate and having masks required for everyone.  Yes, there have been some complaints, but so far, they seem to be winning the battle against COVID for the children.  Out of about 90,000 students and 15,000 staff members COVID infections have remained relatively low for the first two weeks of school.  As of September the 2nd, thirty-four staff and eighty-five students have tested positive and only 117 students have needed to be quarantined.

 
The 85 students in Denver is certainly much lower than 485 in Louisville with only masks or the 1,022 in Atlanta with no vaccine and no masks.  No, not perfect, but better. 

We still must control community spread.  Even a fully vaccinated school with everyone wearing masks must contend with the community where the children live.  If the community is not vaccinated and not wearing masks, then the children are still at risk.  Vaccines and masks make a huge difference in controlling COVID-19.  We must bring that degree of safety, not only to the schools, but also to the communities if we are to keep children in school classrooms.
 
I am sure some people are already yelling and screaming that you cannot mandate vaccines, but as Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases stated,
 
"This is not something new….  —we've done this for decades and decades requiring (vaccines for) polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis….  So this would not be something new, requiring vaccinations for children to come to school…. I believe that mandating vaccines for children to appear in school is a good idea…."
  
Mandated vaccinations could be started tomorrow.  We have the vaccine.  As Dr. Fauci says, it’s not something new.  We mandate vaccines all the time.  We have for years.  So, why are we stalling?  Each day that children go to school without mandated vaccines is one more opportunity for a child to get seriously sick from COVID-19.  It is our responsibility as adults to do everything we can to protect children.
 
Yes, I know there are concerns, but ask yourself this question:  Would you rather have your child cross a six-lane highway to get to school or would you prefer that your child cross a city street with a crossing guard?  When you choose not to get vaccinated, you are forcing your child to cross that six-lane highway to try and get an education. 
 
If we mandate COVID-19 vaccine, it will help protect the children.  As Dr. Andi Shane, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine and hospital epidemiologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta explained,
 
“In Georgia, we’ve been back in school for at least three weeks now and in those counties and school districts where there’s masking and vaccination, we’re not seeing many cases…."
 
Yet, as shown earlier in Fulton County, Georgia, where neither masks nor vaccines were mandated, there were 1,022 positive cases of COVID-19 in just the first week of school.
 
Yes, we need to mandate COVID-19 vaccine for students, teachers, and all staff and personnel.  In a recent poll, 59% of Americans supported mandated vaccinations for teachers and 55% supported mandated vaccinations for students age 12 and older. 
 
 
Why do we also need to mandate masks?

We desperately need mask mandates in all schools as long as children younger than 12 are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccine. We may also need to continue masking in schools until we get control over the COVID spike that is raging through most school buildings right now. Masks give us a more immediate barrier to COVID.  Vaccines provide a more effective barrier to COVID-19.
 
Yes, I know that when we talk about mask mandates, we have several governors who are adamantly fighting mask mandates.  My response: we cannot allow politicians to risk children's lives in order for them to grandstand and win elections.  When your child is sick, do you call the governor for medicine or treatment to make your child well?  No, you call a doctor.  The same is true when you want to know how to protect a child’s life from a deadly virus.  You do not call the governor.  Again, you call a doctor.  Children must not ever become political pawns.  Two of my favorite responses here in Texas are:

• The Paris Independent School District included masks in their dress code for 2021.  The school board explained that they were “… concerned about the health and safety of its students and employees.”

 

• At last count, about 58 school districts in Texas are fighting the ban on mask mandates. Thank goodness someone is concerned about the children.

Four of the largest cities in Texas, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston have all declared mask mandates to protect the children. 
 
David DeMatthews, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at The University of Texas at Austin, and David S. Knight at the University of Washington remind each of us that we must think of the needs of others.   
 
“We need to keep in mind that superintendents are responsible for the health and safety of all employees and students, which means individual parental rights cannot override the rights of other parents, children and personnel whose lives may be at greater risk from COVID-19.”

We are not living in a bubble.  What touches you, touches me.  We cannot harp about choice and freedom while children are dying.  We, as adults, should protect the children above our own personal interests.  It is our responsibility to take care of all children.
 
If we want in-person education to work this year, we must enforce mask mandates.
 
Steven Federico, director of pediatrics at Denver Health, one of the main providers for community clinics in the Denver schools said that it is very important to
 
“… maximize the number of in-person learning days, to make up for last year and to support the kids…. The way you do that is vaccinate as many people as possible and mask.”
 
Across the nation this fall, there are thousands of children being sent home to quarantine because they have been exposed to COVID-19.  For many, especially those who are struggling in school, quarantine can reduce their chances for catching up academically.  Remote learning is often difficult or nonexistent.  students, when placed in quarantine, fall further behind in school and some never catch up.
  
The school year has just begun and so far in August, during the past week, we have seen:

• 10,000 students and staff in Hillsborough County, Florida quarantined 
• 1,000 students and staff in Nashville, Tennessee quarantined
• 3,000 students and staff in New Orleans quarantined
• 20,000 students quarantined in Mississippi
• Ware County, Georgia closed its public schools after a "sharp increase" in cases.  
• At least four school districts in Texas have closed because of COVID.   

Those who demand in-class education should also be demanding mask mandates so children have a chance to stay in the classroom.  In Denver, both the teachers and students chose to wear masks.
 
Rob Gould, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association union, said with the rise in the Delta variant,  “We have to do masks…. It was a no-brainer."
 
Amir Hall, a senior, said he’d much rather wear a mask and be able to come to school.  The student said he wasn't a big fan of doing remote learning.  The student said that last year some students only came to school a couple of days a week.  Hall said for him, “…wearing masks in class isn't a big deal….I'd rather come…." he said.
 
 
Masks are not harmful.
 
Masks are not psychologically or medically harmful for children to wear all day at school.  Again, do not listen to misinformation and lies.  In my last blog, I presented both research and medical facts to explain why masks are perfectly safe for children to wear at school. 
​
​
Earlier Post: Do Mask Mandates Cause Psychological or Medical Problems for Children?

We have heard a lot over the last year and a half about how dangerous COVID-19 is for the psychological wellness of our children.  As a psychologist, who works with children, I would like to share a psychological principle that is true not only for today during this pandemic, but also for any other day.  If you want to help children be happier and also to have what we call psychological wellness, one way is to help children reach out and do something kind for others.
 
Here, I’ll provide a simple hands-on project that you may use at home if your family is staying home for Labor Day or that you may use in the classroom on Tuesday after Labor Day—or any day.  Making cards to send to a nursing home, or to older relatives, or to anyone who might need a card to brighten their day is an excellent way to teach children how to give kindness to others.  When we share kindness with others, it improves our own mental wellness.

​The only supplies you need are construction paper, scissors, pencil, crayons or markers, and a glue stick.  As you can tell from the pictures, we’re making a spiral pop-up card.  Spirals are easy enough for a 5-year-old to make.  Yet, they can also be challenging enough for high school students, especially if you decide to put three spirals on one card.  Making three spirals takes patience.


​Step 1: Take a sheet of construction paper, any color, fold it in half to make a book.  Set it aside.

Step 2: Next, draw a circle or trace around an object in order to produce a circle.  The circle must fit inside your folded page of construction paper.

Step 3: Cut out the circle.  Do not worry if the edges are not completely round.  The spiral is very forgiving.

Step 4: To make a spiral, you may either cut free hand or use your pencil and draw the spiral first.  Then, cut along the lines you have drawn.  You want the spiral to be thin so it will pop up easily, but not so thin that it breaks.  Small children will need you to draw the spiral on their circle for them.  Then, they can cut along the line that you have drawn and make a spiral.  If you are using this idea for an entire class of students, photocopy a spiral for the children to cut out—use colored photocopy paper if possible.