Masks and school | Imamother

amother

Peach

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 5:29 am

I really hope not. I am not in NJ but I will fight to have my kids not wear masks if need be. I almost fainted quite a few times from lack of air while wearing one and I forbid my kids to wear one at this point.

amother

Coffee

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 5:30 am

amother [ Periwinkle ] wrote:

I don't believe it. I don't trust the "experts". I barely survive the 10 minutes of mask wearing when I run into the store for groceries. I've tried cloth masks of various materials, the disposable type and n95 masks. None make me feel like I am getting all the air I need. There are also plenty of studies to show that mask wearing is very harmful - and not just because of oxygen levels. But those studies will be hard to find now with all the censorship going on.

You probably feel more claustrophobic in a mask then lack of oxygen. Doctors nurses high risk people who can't get sick wear masks and they are fine. Masks or not a new invention people have been wearing them before this. Me I don't like wearing a mask but wear one when I go places requiring one . I don't think I am harming myself it's just not comfortable. Another difference is people who wear masks for work or whatever are usually taught had to wear think most people are wearing them wrong like if your glasses fog up you're wearing it wrong.
I think in school the kids can sit at there desks without masks but will be encouraged to wear them around the building they are not mandatory for the students only the teachers in New Jersey. My school actually just send out a survey about what grade category your children are in and how you feel about sending school in September by preschool it did add saying it's almost impossible to social distance them.

LovesHashem

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 5:32 am

amother [ Periwinkle ] wrote:

What's the logic here? Am I more likely to catch something from the girl who sits near me all day or some random kid I pass in the hall?

Personally I think this whole mask thing is dreadful and I will not be sending my children to school if masks are required. It is extremely unhealthful.

Since everyone is social distancing no one in the class should get corona.

Amarante

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 5:44 am

Try a face shield. There are medical experts who state they are as effective as masks and easier to wear. I recently got shields and will wear with a mask as well in high risk situations.

https://www.aarp.org/health/he......html

now we know we should be wearing face masks to protect others from potentially deadly infection when we leave the house. But face masks can be hot, and they can irritate the skin, fog glasses, make it difficult for some to breathe and create a world without smiles. It also can be difficult for people who have hearing loss to communicate when mouths are covered, muffling voices and hiding facial expressions.

Are clear plastic face shields, most frequently used in health care settings, a better option?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend wearing “cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.” But some health experts say shields appear to be very effective at preventing infection — maybe even more effective than masks — for someone going about regular daily activities and not in a high-risk health care setting.

For the latest coronavirus news and advice go to AARP.org/coronavirus.

Amesh Adalja, M.D., a pandemic preparedness expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, says, “There's a lot of at least biological possibility to suspect that [shields] are definitely better than homemade face masks, and maybe even better than other types of masks as well, because they not only prevent you from spreading it … [and] because it also covers your eyes, it provides more protection to the mucus membranes of your face where you might be getting infected.”

James Cherry, M.D., a distinguished research professor and infectious disease expert at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, says that while experts aren't yet sure about how vulnerable our eyes are to infection from this coronavirus, “With many viruses, the eyes are important.” He points to measles and adenoviruses as examples of viruses that are known to infect people through their eyes.

Another benefit, says Adalja: With a mask, you may find yourself constantly adjusting it and therefore touching your face and possibly transferring the virus from your hands, but wearing a shield “doesn't really put you in a position where you're touching your face so much, because it's not as cumbersome to wear."
And finally, Adalja adds, “If you walk down the sidewalk, you can find lots of masks that are just discarded there, which are an infection control risk for other people. Whereas a face shield is something that people can just clean themselves and reuse."

A recent opinion piece in JAMA by Eli Perencevich, M.D., a professor of internal medicine and epidemiology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and two of his colleagues pointed to such benefits of shields for infection prevention, and noted that “face shields appear to significantly reduce the amount of inhalation exposure to influenza virus, another droplet-spread respiratory virus. In a simulation study, face shields were shown to reduce immediate viral exposure by 96 percent when worn by a simulated health care worker within 18 inches of a cough.” In an April 19 tweet Perencevich wrote, “Biggest benefit of face shields would be inside crowded office situations where air exchanges aren't ideal."

Another benefit? With warmer weather, many may also find a face shield attached to a headband or cap cooler to wear than a cloth mask.
Some members of the public are taking such arguments to heart — choosing shields especially for their ability to keep the entire face visible.
Lauren Lek, head of school at Academy of Our Lady of Peace, in San Diego, plans to have her 750 returning faculty and students wear face shields at school rather than masks this August. “Safety and health for our community is a priority for us in reopening,” she says. “As soon as we saw from the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and our local public health office that face shields would be an acceptable alternative to face masks, we knew this was a direction we wanted to move in.”

Noting that face-to-face interaction is key to the education her school provides, Lek adds that face shields are better than masks for students with learning differences, including autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), because they allow for full visibility of facial expressions that can help them read and understand social cues

Mothers

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 5:55 am

I have been wearing masks for hours when I need to go out, and while it is not too comfortable, I have not suffered from oxygen deprivation or any other health effects. I hope the more I wear it - the more I will get used to it, and it will become less bothersome. (Hasn’t worked yet, but still hoping Wink

.)

Just wondering: To those who do not trust the “experts” - are you also anti-vaxxers? (I’m asking because of the similar pattern of not trusting mainstream experts and disregarding mainstream studies, etc.)

amother

Amethyst

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 5:57 am

Mothers wrote:

I fully VAX. Not crunchy at all.

amother

Aquamarine

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 6:01 am

Medical personnel who wear masks all day are definitely not fine. Many are delirious and dizzy from oxygen deprivation at the end of the day and most take frequent breaks to take their masks off. Their co2 levels are not good and their blood oxygen level is low. I've heard this from afew nurses.

PinkFridge

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 6:40 am

amother [ Aquamarine ] wrote:

I'm googling and this is fascinating but no time to pursue. There are articles in leading papers, etc. saying that mask induced hypoxia is a myth and debunked. I found this study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p.....7822/
and read the premise and conclusions sections.

So far, it doesn't seem to be dangerous, in general.

shabbatiscoming

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 6:41 am

About wearing masks, are you all forgetting that surgeons have always worn masks to perform surgeries? And that can last hours and hours, obviouy depending on the surgery. They all are fine and still here to tell us about it.
So for anyone nervous about not being able to breath for a while, remember the wbove
Students in israel had to wear masks in school. There was a case, on the news, about a boy in a high school who was positive for covid. Everyone else in the school (there were 85 students and staff) was rested. And not one was positive. And the reason? The boy had been wearing his mask the entire time in school and the correct way as well.

It is not impossible. And if it saves lives, ehy the heck not?

amother

Blush

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 6:49 am

I hardly think that children will need to wear a mask all day. Schools that have reopened around the world employ a capsule strategy. Within your capsule, you can interact with no restrictions except sanitizing. When you leave your capsule, you need to wear a mask. In reality, the children wear a mask from when they arrive to school until they get to their classroom and upon dismissal.

amother

Blonde

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 6:52 am

Please. I walked ten minutes to the doctor wearing a face mask and my heart rate when tested there was 128. Don't tell me that mask has no effect. I'm not the only one this is happening too.

amother

Khaki

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 6:59 am

Because maybe we didnt go into healthcare because wearing a mask for hours isn't possible for us.
Maybe we have sensory issues and something constantly on our face will make us dysfunctional within 20 minutes.

thriver

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 7:05 am

This is what I posted to my friends two weeks ago. I’ll post it again here.

“Ladies,
Please keep your masks on.
We are the people who wear long sleeves in the summer. Tights. Sheitels. Our men wear woolen Tzitzis. Hats. Jackets. No matter the weather.
Uncomfortable? Do you want to talk about uncomfortable? I am sitting here in Dana Farber Cancer Center waiting for my annual breast MRI. I can handle the mask. I wear it for you. Please wear it for me.”

Our children are trained to wear things that are highly uncomfortable. We can do the mask thing.

Last edited by thriver on Fri, Jul 03 2020, 8:21 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 7:08 am

Coffee, I wonder if we are in the same school, because I also just for a survey. My understanding of the law is that students must wear masks at times they can't be socially distanced. If you define that as 6 feet around in all directions, then it is impossible in most regular classrooms. So no masks in the classroom means half the students aren't there, which would be the every other day model, which nobody likes.

Also, re capsules, my dd is in middle school. She is not with the same students in every class. Certain subjects are tracked by necessity- if they aren't, nobody will learn.

amother

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 7:09 am

Not specifically re schools: I have noticed that when I wear a mask for more than an hour straight, I end up with cold or allergy type symptoms later that day or the next. I don't know why.

unexpected

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 7:28 am

I am not in general allergic to cats but I did spend some time in a house with cats while wearing a mask and during that time I experienced extreme discomfort- coughing, watery tearing eyes, sneezing etc. After I left I continued having symptoms through another appointment until someone kindly offered me a new mask. It took about 5 minutes for my symptoms to clear up. Idk what this means but def there are downsides to wearing a mask and ppl need to make a cost benefit analysis. In our school/camp every single child has/had antibodies so Idk why a mask would be necessary

amother

Aquamarine

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 7:49 am

PinkFridge wrote:

I heard this from nurses themselves, so don't tell me it's a myth. They're dizzy and not themselves and they cant perform their best when wearing a mask all day. They take frequent breaks to stand in front of a fan to get to themselves a bit.
We breath through our nose and mouth, they're not supposed to be covered all day.

amother

Khaki

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 7:51 am

thriver wrote:

Calling it a molehill or invalidating people who are trying to explain why they cannot wear a mask for hours, is not convincing or solving the issue. It's actually highly inconsiderate.
Certain things we don't force on people and personal space and the feeling of the ability to breathe is one of them.

shabbatiscoming

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 7:53 am

amother [ Blush ] wrote:

This is not done all over. In israel one must wear a mask in school. No capsule business. Why is the actual class room any different than any other place?

shabbatiscoming

Fri, Jul 03 2020, 7:55 am

amother [ Khaki ] wrote:

Of course there are people for whom wearing a mask is awful. But for the majority of people in this world, it is fine.