A Mattawan Mother Gives Us Her Thoughts About Mask Mandates

We hear a lot from “experts”, doctors, scientists, politicians, news media and yes even radio talk show hosts/pundits about masks mandates.  Mask mandates that politicians still two years into “give us 15 days to flatten the curve” forced upon us.

Let me first point out that Dr. Michael Osterholm, University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Director and Top Covid-19 adviser to Biden said on CNN that cloth or paper masks don't work to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus. I was happy to see and hear that someone in the Democratic Party is finally following the science.  In the below video he stated that he would like to:

get rid of the term masking” because it “implies anything you put in front of your face works.

He then went on to say:

And if I could just add a nuance to that, which hopefully doesn’t add more confusion, we know today that many of the face cloth coverings people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out,” Osterholm added. “Either you’re breathing out or you’re breathing in.

The federal government was taken to the Supreme Court and lost its mask mandate against the private industry.  School districts are being taken to court concerning their mask mandates and depending on who you are lucky enough or unlucky enough, depending on what side of the debate you are on, the judges either uphold the mandates or strike them down.

Let us not worry about the court for right now how about the parents.

A mother from Mattawan recently contacted me and wrote me the following email:

"Renk: Here are a few of my biggest issues with the mask mandates.

First of all, our children just simply are not at risk of severe illness from Covid.  All 4 of my children have had it.  One of my kids had no symptoms at all and the other 3 had a fever for one day with some nasal congestion.  I have seen them in much worse shape when they have had a stomach bug.  This seems to be the case with all of the kids that I know that have gotten Covid.  Since my kids have already had it, there is really no need at all for them to be wearing a mask.

I believe that the parents should be making the decision to mask our kids or not.  If masks truly kept people from getting Covid (and really we all know this isn't the case) then the people who want to wear the masks shouldn't have to worry about others giving them Covid because their masks should be protecting them.

Finally, for now, I often hear how selfish those of us who don't want mandated mask-wearing are because we don't want to protect those around us.  What I would like to say to that is how selfish of those mandating the masks to say that I have to put a covering over my child’s face for over 8 hours a day with one mask break (at lunch).  Wearing these masks limits their breathing of fresh air, limits their verbal communication causes skin irritations cause headaches and for those with glasses, limits their ability to see through their foggy glasses.  Those are just a few of the obvious problems with wearing masks all day.  Why are my kids wearing masks just to appease some people who are just so full of fear they cannot see the real damage we are doing to our kids!!

As for Mattawan Schools specifically, my biggest issue is that they just keep moving the goal post with no real end in sight.  We were supposed to start the year maskless.  Then, when they changed it to masks they decided to not follow Van Buren county's mask recommendation but to follow Van Buren and Kalamazoo whichever had the stricter guidelines.  That was supposed to remove the masks after children 5-11 were able to get the vaccine.  Then Kalamazoo County extended the mask mandate until Dec 17.  We all anticipated that was finally the end of this mandate but no, Mattawan decided to extend it again, on their own with no mandate from either county until the end of January but really only that they would re-evaluate it at that time.  I do not believe Mattawan has any intention of ever ending this mandate.

I feel really horrible for those people that are living in fear of Covid because I have fear too. My fear is that this is just the beginning of boards, like our school board, and people in government taking away our rights as parents.  No one knows what is best for our children than we do!!!!"

Unfortunately, there are many on the left who do believe they know what is best for your children and even worse think you do not.

How about you other parents how do you feel about these mask mandates?

Should the parents decide or should a bureaucrat decide what your child must or must not wear?