KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Mask mandates are a “very dangerous road to go down,” according to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
Schmitt, who is not a medical doctor but is running for a Senate seat, declared that there are “no studies” indicating children wearing masks in schools is effective.
However, an increasing number of studies contradict Schmitt's claims, including report released in June from Duke University’s ABC Science Collaborative found that in mask usage in North Carolina schools was an “effective strategy to prevent in-school COVID-19 transmission.”
A study published in 2010 in the American Journal of Infection Control found “sufficient evidence” that mask wearing would help control the spread of influenza during a pandemic.
“Educating the public on the effectiveness of masks can increase compliance whilst reducing morbidity and mortality,” the study stated. “With targeted campaigns and the help of the fashion industry, masks may become a popular accessory amongst school children. As children are effective source-transmitters of infection, encouraging a trend toward such increased mask-wearing could result in a significant, self-perpetuating reduction mechanism for limiting influenza transmission in schools during a pandemic.”
Additionally, a growing number of studies that examine the effectiveness of masking in the wider community also show benefits in reducing the spread of COVID-19.
An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in February 2021 concluded: "When masks are worn and combined with other recommended mitigation measures, they protect not only the wearer but also the greater community."
JAMA found that "the overall community benefit of wearing masks derives from their combined ability to limit both exhalation and inhalation of infectious virus" and that the more widespread the adoption of masks was, "the larger the benefit to each individual member."
Schmitt went on to say there's "significant downside" for children from an "emotional, psychological, loss of learning" standpoint, but the American Academy of Pediatrics has outlined the reasons it supports mask mandates and addressed the possibility of language and speech delays.
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Masks have become a political hot-button issue in Missouri and across the country, despite an overwhelming consensus from the medical community.
“I believe in freedom; I believe in responsibility that people can make these very important decisions themselves,” Schmitt, who hopes to win the Republican nomination in a crowded field to replace retiring Sen. Roy Blunt nexy tear, said during a press conference in St. Louis, “and I don't want to live in some futuristic dystopian biomedical security state, and I'm going to do everything I can as attorney general to protect the rights of individuals in the state.”
Mandates, he said, segregate people in an “unAmerican” way and his office’s focus has been to push back on “government-related mandates” and vaccine passports.
The Attorney General’s office already has filed lawsuits against mask mandates in Kansas City, St. Louis City and St. Louis County.
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Schmitt said he will continue to monitor the state’s COVID-19 situation, but citizens “can make their own personal health decisions.”
