Children in New York City will once again be able to see the faces of their teachers and classmates. On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams lifted the cities mask mandate for public education.
The New York Post wrote, For most students in the nation’s largest school district, it is their first time fully showing their faces in a classroom since early 2020 when many went virtual and then masks were eventually mandated.
Parents have claimed that their children are excited to return to school without cloth face coverings, which according to experts do little to curb the pandemic.
“They were yelling ‘Finally! Freedom! Yeah!’” Said a Queens father of two, Allessandro Ancona. His daughters are in Kindergarten and fifth grade. It’s unlikely that his youngest daughter has ever experienced school without a mask.
Data has shown a low likelihood of transmission at school. Even liberal outlets like the Washington Post and New York Times have written articles with headlines corroborating this truth.
“Schools are not spreading covid-19. This new data makes the case.” One Washington Post article was headlined. Another from the NYT states, “Schoolchildren Seem Unlikely to Fuel Coronavirus Surges, Scientists Say”.
The lifting of the mandate comes just after President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address for which U.S. lawmakers gathered by the hundreds without masks.
Many still see this as a form of hypocrisy considering that there are federal laws that currently mandate masks in places like airports.