February 2022
Dear Mayor Breed:
Time and time again, you have not been afraid to step out on your own and advocate for the children and families of San Francisco. You did this to push for the reopening of public schools, by supporting the recall of three school board members, and by declaring a state of emergency in the Tenderloin, the neighborhood home of more than two-thousand children.
As San Francisco parents, we are asking for you to do this again by coming out in support of a return to normalcy for the children of this city, including mask choice in schools and public places indoors and outdoors, and the lifting of asymptomatic testing and vaccine restrictions that limit their everyday participation in activities and city life.
With the California statewide mask mandate due to be lifted on February 15th, the time is now to make sure our kids don’t get left behind yet again.
Perhaps nowhere have children been more negatively impacted by COVID-19 policy than San Francisco. Public schools were the first to close and among the last to open. Playgrounds, basketball courts, libraries and swimming pools stayed closed for months. Youth sports and activities still see many restrictions. Masks are required for children ages 2 and up, and even 2-year-olds are required to provide proof of a negative test if they want to attend large indoor events.
None of this reflects the fact San Francisco’s roughly 100,000 children have been the smallest share of COVID-19 cases in the city, and that there has not been a single death under the age of 20 from COVID-19 and a just handful of pediatric hospitalizations. We must finally not only celebrate children’s low risk but also prioritize their well-being. Adults have the option to be vaccinated and to wear higher quality masks if they so choose.
In recent weeks, there has been a groundswell of media coverage asking that policy makers finally acknowledge the very real harms happening to children as a result of a second year of disruption, including forced masking in schools, frequent testing, punitive quarantines, and disrupted and canceled activities and athletics.
Time: It’s Time to End Mandatory Masks In Schools
NPR: After two years, growing calls to take masks of children in school
New York Times: Mandatory School Masking Should End After Omicron
SFGate: Have San Francisco Policies Done More Harm to Children Than Covid?
San Francisco Chronicle: Should the Kids Wear Masks in School, Maybe Not
The Atlantic: The Case Against Masks in Schools
The Atlantic: First You Decide the Kids Belong in School
Washington Post: Schools Can Safely Make Masks Optional with CDC’s New Guidance
Common Sense: I’m a Public School Teacher: The Kids Are Not Alright.
Tablet: The Cult of Masked Schoolchildren
At no time has Europe applied such strict mask mandates to young children and a number of countries have never required masks in schools at all, without dire outcomes. Several European countries are also not advising that healthy children be vaccinated against COVID-19, again in recognition of this age group’s incredibly low risk, which is already lower than that of a vaccinated adult, and lower than their risk of drowning, homicides, suicides, cancer, car accidents, the common flu, and heart disease.
Most US states have had mask choice in schools for months, and very recently, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, and Oregon have announced plans to lift mask mandates for all residents, including for children in schools, regardless of their vaccination status and in acknowledgement that COVID-19 is approaching endemicity.
A public statement from you that San Francisco and California should do the same immediately would go a long way in finally getting things back to normal for children here.
Thank you in advance for your leadership on this and we look forward to good news.
Signed,
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