On NBC’s TODAY Show on Tuesday, the show pushed for parents to double-mask their small schoolchildren, and recommended that everyone wear a mask that is “very, very snug”
Asked what are the types of masks we should have, NBC investigative and consumer correspondent Vicky Nguyen first listed cloth masks, but then said many public health experts were recommending surgical masks or KN95 or N95 masks. She told the show’s hosts of the KN95 mask, “They go all the way over your head. Not the most comfortable, but very, very snug. Not a lot of air is getting in between the sides of my cheeks or the tops of my cheeks.”
Co-host Craig Melvin asked, “Hey, Vic, the kids are back in the classroom, at least the overwhelming majority of them. What’s the recommendation for our youngest learners?”
“Okay, so we talked to [NBC News’ Medical Correspondent] Dr. John Torres about this because I actually just sent my kids out the door this morning, minutes ago, with two masks,” Nguyen answered. “He says obviously the KN95, N95 are the most effective but it can be really hard to find them in small kids’ sizes and also to keep them on your kids all day, they’re not the most comfortable. So the second best option is to make sure you have a kids’ size surgical mask.”
“By the way, look at what a difference the kids’ size mask is from the adult size. So you really want to make sure you have one that fits your child’s face, and you want to layer the cloth mask over that mask,” she continued. “So the surgical mask goes on first and then the cloth mask. If you can’t do that, surgical mask alone. Dr. Torres says least best, but better than nothing, the two-layer cotton mask that fits your child. The best mask, certainly, is the one that your child will wear and keep on the whole day when they’re in the classroom.”
David Zweig reported in the left-leaning publication The Atlantic in mid-December:
The World Health Organization, for example, does not recommend masks for children under age 6. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommends against the use of masks for any children in primary school.
Zweig pointed out that CDC recommended all kids 2 and older should be masked in school and that CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky cited an Arizona study. He pointed out:
But the Arizona study at the center of the CDC’s back-to-school blitz turns out to have been profoundly misleading. “You can’t learn anything about the effects of school mask mandates from this study,” Jonathan Ketcham, a public-health economist at Arizona State University, told me. His view echoed the assessment of eight other experts who reviewed the research, and with whom I spoke for this article.