The new school year is starting in a couple of weeks and there are a lot of parents who are taking issue with rules requiring kids to wear masks to protect them from COVID-19.
It all started with a New Yorker Magazine article published a few days ago, where the author took a fresh look at a [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] study that came out in May.
In that article, David Zweig pointed out that the study shows that while masking teachers and staff reduced infection rates at a district in Georgia, masking children did not.
Parents who are against mask mandates for kids have latched onto this article because there is in fact, no robust study out there proving masks on kids reduces infection rates.
News 12 spoke with a pediatrician who read the CDC study and said this is a case of an article being factually correct, while also being very misleading.
"If you look at one thing, then you can prove that one point that masks by itself is not a perfect tool for defense. But that's not how it's being utilized, and in order to protect yourself who are unvaccinated, a mask is an important addition in your armor that you need and should do for those of us who aren't protected," says pediatrician Dr. Dan Cohen.
Dr. Cohen also points out that CDC study was done from November to December of last year - well before the much more contagious delta variant had become widespread.
The American Academy of Pediatrics latest recommendation is that everyone over the age of 2 years old wear masks in school.