The Backfire Effect is Keeping Kids in Masks
The Lowest Risk Age Group is Facing the Harshest Restrictions Because of Covidian Cognitive Bias
Just as last year liberal enclaves held on to lockdowns the longest (with no discernible benefit) this year these same locales are clinging to mask mandates longer than anywhere else, especially in schools.
There’s a perfect example of this near where I live in Northern California. While my county, El Dorado, has as few restictions as the state will allow (most of which aren’t enforced), nearby Yolo County, home of Davis, CA and UC Davis, is clinging to whatever restrictions they can.
Last night the Davis Joint Unified School District decided to keep masks mandated in schools until April 11th, while leaving open the option to push that date back! So it will take a month after nearly every kid in the state will finally be able to go to school without a mask (and 2 months after mandates were dropped for adults) before the kids in Davis enjoy this right.
This may by harder to enforce than the district thinks, and there may be a viable legal angle to gets the masks off kids early. In nearby Alameda County one of the local school districts recently sent a message to parents explaining that they "do not have the authority to independently propose health policy that is more restrictive than the state or county."
The same rules would apply to Yolo County. The county announced last Friday that they will align with the state and remove the mask mandate for K-12 starting on March 12th. DJUSD does not appear to have the individual authority to propose a public health policy more restrictive than the County.
But regardless of how this situation is resolved legally, I really feel for kids like those in Davis who shoudn’t have to put up with this any longer. Davis might have the highest concentration of graduate and postgraduate degrees of any city in the state, and yet it seems that the most "educated" places in the country are the most ignorant when it comes to kids and Covid...
And it’s not like the situation in Davis is unique. There's another example of this playing out in New York City right now.
Starting on Monday (March 7th) children in New York City will finally be allowed to attend school without being required to wear a mask, BUT the mandates will not be lifted for 2 to 4 year olds in preschools and daycare. That's right, starting Monday the only people required to wear masks in NYC will be 2 to 4 year olds!
(try watching this video without your eyes welling up or your fists clenching…)
The city's updated guidelines explain that, regardless of community transmission levels, masks will be required in all childcare settings until a vaccine is available for the under 5 age group.
Here's the rub, a study was recently published using New York State data, on how well the Covid vaccine has been working for 5 to 17 year olds. It showed that by the end of January 2022, the vaccine was just 12% effective in 5 to 11 year olds. So setting aside the reality that kids of this age don't need this vaccine, the City is saying that 4 year olds have to mask while 5 year olds don't because a vaccine is available to 5 year olds, but the State's own data shows this vaccine doesn't even work for them!
It's madness! New York City is the financial and cultural hub of the greatest, most powerful country on the planet, and probably has more brain power than any place on Earth, but when it comes to kids and Covid they are like obtuse cavemen.
The question is often asked how liberal enclaves could become so fanatical about Covid. I think that avoidance of Covid, and the rituals that go with it have become part of their self identity. It's basically a religion for these groups.
It has all the accouterments of a region:
religious practices - wearing a mask, social distancing.
original sin - immuno-naivety.
conversion - vaccination.
common sins - going to a restaurant, gathering with the unboosted.
atonement - testing negative.
holy figures - Dr. Fauci
etc:
I think this effect is exacerbated by a type of cognitive bias known as the Backfire Effect:
The Backfire effect can occur when people encounter evidence that challenges their beliefs. Often instead of weakening their prior beliefs, people reject this new evidence and they actually more strongly hold onto their original stance. The effect is especially likely when the beliefs in question are crucial to their self-concept, which means that they represent an important part of that person’s identity and ideology.
Sound familiar?...
We have seen how this effect has played out over the last two years:
When evidence made it clear that masks didn't work, instead of dropping masks people doubled down and pushed for double masking and "Better masks".
When evidence showed that vaccine conferred immunity (against infection) waned quickly, thus invalidating mandates, the push for vaccine mandates only grew.
As it became clear that children were at little to no risk from Covid, the restrictions placed on children's lives in proportion to adults have only grown.
As it became clear that Covid was not going away and would become endemic, the Covid Zero madness of testing everyone and vainly pushing cases to zero only strengthened.
I'm not sure how this will end, but I do believe it will take quite a long time because these beliefs appear to be sincerely held and will be very hard to shake. The last two years have broken a lot of people, and I could see it taking a lot more than two years for some of them to come to grips with the fact that their core identity is based on falsehoods.
On a personal note, a friend of mine who is deep into this ideology refused to come to a gathering of friends over the holidays because everyone there wouldn't be boosted... When asked why he said, "part of it is convincing loved ones you're being careful." For him, it wasn't about his personal concern or fear of the virus, but the shame that would come to him and his family if others found out that he had taken the risk of gathering with the unboosted, or heaven forbid, if he later tested positive...
Which is fine. If people want to live this way, have at it. Just stay away from my kids!
Anyway, 0 and 2…
Best explanation of school masking that I have seen, https://youtu.be/OC_doCP3j-E