California to end mask mandate but retain for schoolchildren, unvaccinated

Various states have decided to end their mask mandates, including blue states such as New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and California. But California has specified that certain groups will continue to be under a mask mandate: schoolchildren and the unvaccinated. 

"On February 15, California's statewide indoor mask requirement will expire. Unvaccinated people must still wear masks in indoor public settings," announced Governor Gavin Newsom. Public health officials also singled out schoolchildren as being compelled to wear masks indoors, despite schoolchildren being the least high-risk population. 

A study published yesterday by researchers at Ben Gurion University in Israel and York University in Toronto found that masks have a devastating effect on children. Specifically, the study found that masks negatively impact children’s "ability to make social interactions with peers and educators, as well as their ability to form important relationships." 

Assistant Professor Erez Freud of the Faculty of Health at York University is the study’s senior author. 

"Not only do masks hinder the ability of children to recognize faces, but they also disrupt the typical, holistic way that faces are processed,” said Freud. 

He added, “If holistic processing is impaired and recognition is impaired, there is a possibility it could impair children’s ability to navigate through social interactions with their peers and teachers, and this could lead to issues forming important relationships. Given the importance of faces to social interactions, this is something we need to pay attention to.” 

California will still require masks to be worn by the vaccinated and vaccine-free alike at “high-risk events” and public transit. Local governments may still enforce mask mandates, which Los Angeles County has already pledged to do. 

This move comes just days after Newsom and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti were caught flouting their own mask mandates at an indoor stadium as they rubbed elbows with celebrities such as Magic Johnson. 

A mask mandate for the unvaccinated would be the first time since WWII that a government is forcing a group to wear an outward identifier that marks them as “dangerous”. 

Even CNN is calling for an end to mask mandates, though for a different reason. CNN medical expert Dr. Leana Wen thinks mask mandates should end to protect authority.

“It helps to preserve public health authority for when it’s needed again,” Wen wrote in a tweet.