Stanford ‘medical expert’ finally retracts support for masking toddlers
At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Stanford University School of Medicine infectious disease specialist Jake Scott publicly retracted his support for masking young children.
During the hearing, titled “How the Corruption of Science Has Impacted Public Perception and Policies Regarding Vaccines,” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) asked witnesses whether it is a “good idea” to mask two-year-olds. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandated masks for children aged two and older during the pandemic through Head Start, its early childhood services program.
At the time, Scott came out strongly in favor of the mandate, urging parents and schools to force their children to wear masks.
But when questioned by Sen. Moreno on Tuesday, Scott said it is not a good idea to mask young children. His answer came after two other witnesses said children should not be masked.
“You tweeted in January of 2021 that you masked your two-year-old and that all two-year-olds should be masked,” Moreno argued. “I’ll submit the tweet for the record.”
“I changed my mind . . . I’m admitting it,” Scott said.
When Moreno responded that he “applauds” Scott for the admission, the room broke into applause.
What the science says
Studies conducted throughout the pandemic showed that face masks are a debilitating learning barrier for young children. Prolonged masking directly undermines a child’s early development skills, such as attachment, facial processing, and socioemotional processing, which can set them back for the rest of their life.
A study published in 2022 by researchers at Ben Gurion University in Israel and Toronto’s York University found that masks have a devastating effect on children. Specifically, the researchers 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."
German researchers similarly found that extended mask use can impact “verbal motor and overall cognitive performance in children” as well as stillbirths.
These are in addition to a large-scale study published in 2023 by The Cochrane Institute, which found that surgical masks and even N95 or P2 respirators are ineffective against respiratory viruses like COVID-19. The researchers reviewed 78 global studies involving 610,000 participants. Significantly, the studies they reviewed were randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies, which are considered to be the scientific “gold standard.”
The Biden administration had no scientific evidence to support its mask policies, but enforced them because poll data showed it was politically popular among Democrats.
