Parent poll: majority prefer masks at our center

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this might be our daycare - we recently did a survey about masking and "the future of the pandemic" a few weeks ago, but I haven't seen the results.

Our kid's daycare colds, coughs, and croup have declined significantly since he started masking in September (when he graduated to the 2's). That said, our entire household got Omicron in late January. Nearly his entire class was infected. And this is a daycare program that is very good about masking.

So yeah, masking little kids won't stop Omicron or a future variant with similar transmissibility. But his lack of colds and croup have been amazing. We didn't have one close exposure/quarantine in the fall semester or bout of illness - it was incredible.

We are also low-key pro-masking. We are not going to get noisy about it, but we also don't wear a mask outside or at the playground. Given our recent infection, we are enjoying letting down our guard a bit for the next month or two.

That said, we answered in the survey that we support continued masking. The silent majority is speaking.

Outside day care, how many families were getting together socially, traveling, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some points made here that don't really stand up. My kid's school requires KN95s or KF94s at this point. If you think cloth masks don't work, why not move to better masks? Also, my five and three-year-olds have no trouble wearing their masks correctly all day. If your child, after 2 years of everyone wearing masks, doesn't understand that it needs to stay above the nose, that's probably on you. My preference is to keep masks in schools until young children can be vaccinated, and potentially during surge periods thereafter.

I would not send my child to a daycare that required KN95s for children. Those masks are not designed to be worn by children. My child doesn’t wear a mask properly bc they are 3. I don’t feel bad about it. Masking 3 yr olds is theater and so we all play along

[Anonymous]

I tend to see mostly overly mask conservative people posting on this topic in DC proper, so this doesn’t surprise me.

It’s odd though, a lot of people are sending their 3 yo masked and 1 yo unmasked since under 2s don’t mask. It takes some cognitive dissonance imo to say the 3 yo needs the mask but then be sending the 1 yo unmasked without concern.

We seem to forget that under 2s have been unmasked this whole time and there hasn’t been huge transmission waves in that set.

[Anonymous]

They need to poll parents weekly. Opinions are changing rapidly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:curious what this mental health condition is that developed suddenly at age 2? as a mental health provider, we have always had huge waitlists unfortunately. More of my patients (older than daycare) are nervous about schools going mask optional than about wearing masks.

and fully agree the 3 hours of unmasked lunch/nap is a recipe for covid spread. that's why I know many people picking their kids up at lunch/nap time.

I don’t know anyone at our daycare picking their kids up for lunch/nap. That’s like half the day- how would parents work? We’ve had one case in my kids’ daycare classes in 1.5 years, so despite this “recipe for spread”, the doomsday scenario hasn’t materialized.

It’s amazing that in such a highly educated area that parents are nervous about getting rid of useless cloth face coverings that are going off and in all day.

People reveal their privilege when they make statements like this about childcare as if the typical family has that kind of flexibility.

Unfortunately the pandemic has normalized parents transferring their anxiety onto their small children. It has also normalized making broad-ranging assumptions about the needs, temperament, and abilities of other people's children. We accept a wide range for potty training but expect mask compliance at 24 months.

+1

For low-income parents, no day care often means no pay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/02/22/child-care-covid-inequality/

If poorly worn cloth masks are reducing the spread of Covid in daycare they should keep the masks. But that seems highly, highly unlikely.

It's variant dependent. The masks on kids worked well for alpha and delta strains. Didn't work great on omicron.

There's also the case of the teachers/caregivers - you can't force them to take off their masks. I expect them to keep on the masks a lot longer than the kids.

Could you provide a link to this study? Because I've been looking for this information for a while now and can never seem to find it. I've been concerned that the risk-benefits of masking for toddlers has not been properly quantified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:curious what this mental health condition is that developed suddenly at age 2? as a mental health provider, we have always had huge waitlists unfortunately. More of my patients (older than daycare) are nervous about schools going mask optional than about wearing masks.

and fully agree the 3 hours of unmasked lunch/nap is a recipe for covid spread. that's why I know many people picking their kids up at lunch/nap time.

I don’t know anyone at our daycare picking their kids up for lunch/nap. That’s like half the day- how would parents work? We’ve had one case in my kids’ daycare classes in 1.5 years, so despite this “recipe for spread”, the doomsday scenario hasn’t materialized.

It’s amazing that in such a highly educated area that parents are nervous about getting rid of useless cloth face coverings that are going off and in all day.

People reveal their privilege when they make statements like this about childcare as if the typical family has that kind of flexibility.

Unfortunately the pandemic has normalized parents transferring their anxiety onto their small children. It has also normalized making broad-ranging assumptions about the needs, temperament, and abilities of other people's children. We accept a wide range for potty training but expect mask compliance at 24 months.

+1

For low-income parents, no day care often means no pay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/02/22/child-care-covid-inequality/

If poorly worn cloth masks are reducing the spread of Covid in daycare they should keep the masks. But that seems highly, highly unlikely.

It's variant dependent. The masks on kids worked well for alpha and delta strains. Didn't work great on omicron.

There's also the case of the teachers/caregivers - you can't force them to take off their masks. I expect them to keep on the masks a lot longer than the kids.

Could you provide a link to this study? Because I've been looking for this information for a while now and can never seem to find it. I've been concerned that the risk-benefits of masking for toddlers has not been properly quantified.

DP that's because it hasn't been. The CDC is more concerned with public relations than it is with providing accurate information. Here is a link to the only randomized study on masking that I am aware of, which was done pre Delta: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi9069 and the impacts of the very high quality cloth masks they used was negligible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:curious what this mental health condition is that developed suddenly at age 2? as a mental health provider, we have always had huge waitlists unfortunately. More of my patients (older than daycare) are nervous about schools going mask optional than about wearing masks.

and fully agree the 3 hours of unmasked lunch/nap is a recipe for covid spread. that's why I know many people picking their kids up at lunch/nap time.

I don’t know anyone at our daycare picking their kids up for lunch/nap. That’s like half the day- how would parents work? We’ve had one case in my kids’ daycare classes in 1.5 years, so despite this “recipe for spread”, the doomsday scenario hasn’t materialized.

It’s amazing that in such a highly educated area that parents are nervous about getting rid of useless cloth face coverings that are going off and in all day.

People reveal their privilege when they make statements like this about childcare as if the typical family has that kind of flexibility.

Unfortunately the pandemic has normalized parents transferring their anxiety onto their small children. It has also normalized making broad-ranging assumptions about the needs, temperament, and abilities of other people's children. We accept a wide range for potty training but expect mask compliance at 24 months.

+1

For low-income parents, no day care often means no pay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/02/22/child-care-covid-inequality/

If poorly worn cloth masks are reducing the spread of Covid in daycare they should keep the masks. But that seems highly, highly unlikely.

It's variant dependent. The masks on kids worked well for alpha and delta strains. Didn't work great on omicron.

There's also the case of the teachers/caregivers - you can't force them to take off their masks. I expect them to keep on the masks a lot longer than the kids.

Could you provide a link to this study? Because I've been looking for this information for a while now and can never seem to find it. I've been concerned that the risk-benefits of masking for toddlers has not been properly quantified.

I'm going off my experience in our daycare. Very little transmission before Omicron. Like, absolutely miniscule. In my view, masking was part of a suite of procedures that prevented outbreaks in our daycare.

It absolutely exploded in our NW DC daycare right before Xmas Break 2021 and again in mid January 2022. That's how we got it. By the end of January, I'm pretty sure about 60% of the classes at our daycare were closed for quarantine. Omicron was way more transmissible in smaller amounts.

So - were masks the ONLY thing that stopped previous variants? Obviously not, but I believe they helped. But once Omicron came, masks that were not N95s were pretty much useless. Which is exactly what the CDC was saying in early December 2021.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:curious what this mental health condition is that developed suddenly at age 2? as a mental health provider, we have always had huge waitlists unfortunately. More of my patients (older than daycare) are nervous about schools going mask optional than about wearing masks.

and fully agree the 3 hours of unmasked lunch/nap is a recipe for covid spread. that's why I know many people picking their kids up at lunch/nap time.

I don’t know anyone at our daycare picking their kids up for lunch/nap. That’s like half the day- how would parents work? We’ve had one case in my kids’ daycare classes in 1.5 years, so despite this “recipe for spread”, the doomsday scenario hasn’t materialized.

It’s amazing that in such a highly educated area that parents are nervous about getting rid of useless cloth face coverings that are going off and in all day.

People reveal their privilege when they make statements like this about childcare as if the typical family has that kind of flexibility.

Unfortunately the pandemic has normalized parents transferring their anxiety onto their small children. It has also normalized making broad-ranging assumptions about the needs, temperament, and abilities of other people's children. We accept a wide range for potty training but expect mask compliance at 24 months.

+1

For low-income parents, no day care often means no pay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/02/22/child-care-covid-inequality/

If poorly worn cloth masks are reducing the spread of Covid in daycare they should keep the masks. But that seems highly, highly unlikely.

It's variant dependent. The masks on kids worked well for alpha and delta strains. Didn't work great on omicron.

There's also the case of the teachers/caregivers - you can't force them to take off their masks. I expect them to keep on the masks a lot longer than the kids.

Could you provide a link to this study? Because I've been looking for this information for a while now and can never seem to find it. I've been concerned that the risk-benefits of masking for toddlers has not been properly quantified.

DP that's because it hasn't been. The CDC is more concerned with public relations than it is with providing accurate information. Here is a link to the only randomized study on masking that I am aware of, which was done pre Delta: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi9069 and the impacts of the very high quality cloth masks they used was negligible.

Did you read the study you linked? The conclusion is the opposite of what you just wrote lol

CONCLUSION

A randomized-trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that the intervention increased mask usage and reduced symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, demonstrating that promoting community mask-wearing can improve public health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:curious what this mental health condition is that developed suddenly at age 2? as a mental health provider, we have always had huge waitlists unfortunately. More of my patients (older than daycare) are nervous about schools going mask optional than about wearing masks.

and fully agree the 3 hours of unmasked lunch/nap is a recipe for covid spread. that's why I know many people picking their kids up at lunch/nap time.

I don’t know anyone at our daycare picking their kids up for lunch/nap. That’s like half the day- how would parents work? We’ve had one case in my kids’ daycare classes in 1.5 years, so despite this “recipe for spread”, the doomsday scenario hasn’t materialized.

It’s amazing that in such a highly educated area that parents are nervous about getting rid of useless cloth face coverings that are going off and in all day.

People reveal their privilege when they make statements like this about childcare as if the typical family has that kind of flexibility.

Unfortunately the pandemic has normalized parents transferring their anxiety onto their small children. It has also normalized making broad-ranging assumptions about the needs, temperament, and abilities of other people's children. We accept a wide range for potty training but expect mask compliance at 24 months.

+1

For low-income parents, no day care often means no pay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/02/22/child-care-covid-inequality/

If poorly worn cloth masks are reducing the spread of Covid in daycare they should keep the masks. But that seems highly, highly unlikely.

It's variant dependent. The masks on kids worked well for alpha and delta strains. Didn't work great on omicron.

There's also the case of the teachers/caregivers - you can't force them to take off their masks. I expect them to keep on the masks a lot longer than the kids.

Could you provide a link to this study? Because I've been looking for this information for a while now and can never seem to find it. I've been concerned that the risk-benefits of masking for toddlers has not been properly quantified.

I'm going off my experience in our daycare. Very little transmission before Omicron. Like, absolutely miniscule. In my view, masking was part of a suite of procedures that prevented outbreaks in our daycare.

It absolutely exploded in our NW DC daycare right before Xmas Break 2021 and again in mid January 2022. That's how we got it. By the end of January, I'm pretty sure about 60% of the classes at our daycare were closed for quarantine. Omicron was way more transmissible in smaller amounts.

So - were masks the ONLY thing that stopped previous variants? Obviously not, but I believe they helped. But once Omicron came, masks that were not N95s were pretty much useless. Which is exactly what the CDC was saying in early December 2021.

Oh ok, so when you say “masks worked” this is your belief, not actual evidence. Bummer!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:curious what this mental health condition is that developed suddenly at age 2? as a mental health provider, we have always had huge waitlists unfortunately. More of my patients (older than daycare) are nervous about schools going mask optional than about wearing masks.

and fully agree the 3 hours of unmasked lunch/nap is a recipe for covid spread. that's why I know many people picking their kids up at lunch/nap time.

I don’t know anyone at our daycare picking their kids up for lunch/nap. That’s like half the day- how would parents work? We’ve had one case in my kids’ daycare classes in 1.5 years, so despite this “recipe for spread”, the doomsday scenario hasn’t materialized.

It’s amazing that in such a highly educated area that parents are nervous about getting rid of useless cloth face coverings that are going off and in all day.

People reveal their privilege when they make statements like this about childcare as if the typical family has that kind of flexibility.

Unfortunately the pandemic has normalized parents transferring their anxiety onto their small children. It has also normalized making broad-ranging assumptions about the needs, temperament, and abilities of other people's children. We accept a wide range for potty training but expect mask compliance at 24 months.

+1

For low-income parents, no day care often means no pay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/02/22/child-care-covid-inequality/

If poorly worn cloth masks are reducing the spread of Covid in daycare they should keep the masks. But that seems highly, highly unlikely.

It's variant dependent. The masks on kids worked well for alpha and delta strains. Didn't work great on omicron.

There's also the case of the teachers/caregivers - you can't force them to take off their masks. I expect them to keep on the masks a lot longer than the kids.

Could you provide a link to this study? Because I've been looking for this information for a while now and can never seem to find it. I've been concerned that the risk-benefits of masking for toddlers has not been properly quantified.

DP that's because it hasn't been. The CDC is more concerned with public relations than it is with providing accurate information. Here is a link to the only randomized study on masking that I am aware of, which was done pre Delta: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi9069 and the impacts of the very high quality cloth masks they used was negligible.

Did you read the study you linked? The conclusion is the opposite of what you just wrote lol

CONCLUSION

A randomized-trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that the intervention increased mask usage and reduced symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, demonstrating that promoting community mask-wearing can improve public health.

I know, science is hard. If you actually read the study you'll see depending on how they crunched the numbers the effect of cloth masks was often not statistically significant. Even for surgical masks, the effects were not large. This is pre-Omicron.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:curious what this mental health condition is that developed suddenly at age 2? as a mental health provider, we have always had huge waitlists unfortunately. More of my patients (older than daycare) are nervous about schools going mask optional than about wearing masks.

and fully agree the 3 hours of unmasked lunch/nap is a recipe for covid spread. that's why I know many people picking their kids up at lunch/nap time.

I don’t know anyone at our daycare picking their kids up for lunch/nap. That’s like half the day- how would parents work? We’ve had one case in my kids’ daycare classes in 1.5 years, so despite this “recipe for spread”, the doomsday scenario hasn’t materialized.

It’s amazing that in such a highly educated area that parents are nervous about getting rid of useless cloth face coverings that are going off and in all day.

People reveal their privilege when they make statements like this about childcare as if the typical family has that kind of flexibility.

Unfortunately the pandemic has normalized parents transferring their anxiety onto their small children. It has also normalized making broad-ranging assumptions about the needs, temperament, and abilities of other people's children. We accept a wide range for potty training but expect mask compliance at 24 months.

+1

For low-income parents, no day care often means no pay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/02/22/child-care-covid-inequality/

If poorly worn cloth masks are reducing the spread of Covid in daycare they should keep the masks. But that seems highly, highly unlikely.

It's variant dependent. The masks on kids worked well for alpha and delta strains. Didn't work great on omicron.

There's also the case of the teachers/caregivers - you can't force them to take off their masks. I expect them to keep on the masks a lot longer than the kids.

Could you provide a link to this study? Because I've been looking for this information for a while now and can never seem to find it. I've been concerned that the risk-benefits of masking for toddlers has not been properly quantified.

DP that's because it hasn't been. The CDC is more concerned with public relations than it is with providing accurate information. Here is a link to the only randomized study on masking that I am aware of, which was done pre Delta: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi9069 and the impacts of the very high quality cloth masks they used was negligible.

Did you read the study you linked? The conclusion is the opposite of what you just wrote lol

CONCLUSION

A randomized-trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that the intervention increased mask usage and reduced symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, demonstrating that promoting community mask-wearing can improve public health.

I know, science is hard. If you actually read the study you'll see depending on how they crunched the numbers the effect of cloth masks was often not statistically significant. Even for surgical masks, the effects were not large. This is pre-Omicron.

Tell me how a study of mostly men in one of the poorest countries on earth applies to children in American preschools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:curious what this mental health condition is that developed suddenly at age 2? as a mental health provider, we have always had huge waitlists unfortunately. More of my patients (older than daycare) are nervous about schools going mask optional than about wearing masks.

and fully agree the 3 hours of unmasked lunch/nap is a recipe for covid spread. that's why I know many people picking their kids up at lunch/nap time.

I don’t know anyone at our daycare picking their kids up for lunch/nap. That’s like half the day- how would parents work? We’ve had one case in my kids’ daycare classes in 1.5 years, so despite this “recipe for spread”, the doomsday scenario hasn’t materialized.

It’s amazing that in such a highly educated area that parents are nervous about getting rid of useless cloth face coverings that are going off and in all day.

People reveal their privilege when they make statements like this about childcare as if the typical family has that kind of flexibility.

Unfortunately the pandemic has normalized parents transferring their anxiety onto their small children. It has also normalized making broad-ranging assumptions about the needs, temperament, and abilities of other people's children. We accept a wide range for potty training but expect mask compliance at 24 months.

+1

For low-income parents, no day care often means no pay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/02/22/child-care-covid-inequality/

If poorly worn cloth masks are reducing the spread of Covid in daycare they should keep the masks. But that seems highly, highly unlikely.

It's variant dependent. The masks on kids worked well for alpha and delta strains. Didn't work great on omicron.

There's also the case of the teachers/caregivers - you can't force them to take off their masks. I expect them to keep on the masks a lot longer than the kids.

Could you provide a link to this study? Because I've been looking for this information for a while now and can never seem to find it. I've been concerned that the risk-benefits of masking for toddlers has not been properly quantified.

DP that's because it hasn't been. The CDC is more concerned with public relations than it is with providing accurate information. Here is a link to the only randomized study on masking that I am aware of, which was done pre Delta: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi9069 and the impacts of the very high quality cloth masks they used was negligible.

Did you read the study you linked? The conclusion is the opposite of what you just wrote lol

CONCLUSION

A randomized-trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that the intervention increased mask usage and reduced symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, demonstrating that promoting community mask-wearing can improve public health.

I know, science is hard. If you actually read the study you'll see depending on how they crunched the numbers the effect of cloth masks was often not statistically significant. Even for surgical masks, the effects were not large. This is pre-Omicron.

Tell me how a study of mostly men in one of the poorest countries on earth applies to children in American preschools?

Do you know of other studies that are more relevant? Even within the DMV, daycare mask policies vary. You'd think a data scientist at one of the public health organizations could be bothered to look at some data to see if masks are making a difference. Heck- you could even look within a center at 1yo rooms (no masks) vs. 2yo rooms (masked) because to my knowledge there is not a functional difference in how much a 1yo vs. 2yo can spread the virus, 2 was just deemed the cutoff for safety reasons.

But no one can be bothered, it's easier just to double down on the policy than to look critically at the appropriateness and effectiveness of it.

[Anonymous]

The fact of the matter is that daycare communities will do what feels right to them and the majority of the families/staff at any given center.

If you don't like how your daycare is handling COVID, pull your kid out and find a better fit for your family. That goes for families on both sides of the arguments.

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of people who are currently saying "My kid doesn't mind wearing a mask, I don't think it's a big deal and can't hurt" will eventually come around and be sort of shocked they did this to their young kids for so long. Maybe kids who are currently still under 3.5 won't remember or see longterm impacts of masking, especially if it ends in the next 6 months. Maybe. But I think older kids will and people will realize that it wasn't as easy on kids as they think.

I thought my kid had no problem with masking for a long time. She'd put on the mask and then forget about it, never really seemed to complain about it, would even remind us when it was time to mask up. But 2 years on, I think I misread what appeared to be nonchalance. The truth is kids are largely pretty good at complying with rules -- they have to do it all the time, especially in an environment like daycare or school. I've learned a lot in recent months from my kid about what it means that she can't see her friends' full faces at school, or see the teacher faces, or have them see hers. I don't even think she thought of these things as a problem because she's so young she doesn't remember going to daycare/preschool without masks. But it's clear it's had an impact on her and the idea that she might not have to wear a mask, or that her classmates or teachers might not, is thrilling to her. She has started mentioning it tentatively and it's obviously something on her mine. Like before anyone was even talking about it.

For people who think masking is no big deal because your kids don't complain, there may be more going on in their minds on the subject of masks than you realize. There is an impact, and we may not really understand it for a while. Especially for these very young kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fact of the matter is that daycare communities will do what feels right to them and the majority of the families/staff at any given center.

If you don't like how your daycare is handling COVID, pull your kid out and find a better fit for your family. That goes for families on both sides of the arguments.

You mean like move somewhere else? Or "just get a nanny'? There are very few options for mask free daycares in DC and MoCo in particular.