Did you know Step One School is still masking outside despite the fact that there is no scientific evidence to warrant doing so?

Did you know that regardless of household size, parental vaccination substantially reduced the risk of children up to 12 years old becoming infected and that this will protect children from risk of severe disease and reduce the propagation of transmission chains." (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm3087)

Did you know that 0-5 year olds have very low susceptibility to covid because they have lower ace2 receptor expression (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2766522)
and that face masking in schools are not associated with lower incidence or transmission of covid? (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4046809)

Did you know that COVID infections are steeply lower in classrooms that had mechanical ventilation systems, such as those found at SO? (https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italian-study-shows-ventilation-can-cut-school-covid-cases-by-82-2022-03-22/)

Did you know that many liberals feel deep anxiety about Covid’s effects on children — even though the flu kills more children in a typical year and car crashes kill about five times as many — and that long Covid, similarly, appears to be rare in both children and vaccinated people? (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/18/briefing/covid-risks-poll-americans.html )

Did you know that many countries have chosen not to mask children so as not to disrupt children's highly sensitive developmental, learning, and social environments and those countries have seen no higher levels of transmission? (https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/COVID-19-in-children-and-the-role-of-school-settings-in-transmission-first-update_1.pdf)

Did you know that masks impair dental health? masks encourage open mouth breathing which reduces saliva production in turn resulting in dental decay. This sets into motion a lifelong pattern whereby excess oral bacteria cause cavities.

Please join me in asking SO to unmask our kids outdoors for these many reasons, none of which involve compromising the health and safety of our entire community.