Factcheck: False: Wearing masks causes people to get sick

By HEATHER M. BUTTS, JD, MPH, MA Special to the AmNews

At the beginning of COVID-19, mask-wearing was introduced with some confusion, due in part to the evolving information, and then because of the lack of availability of high-quality masks. The importance of wearing masks as the pandemic has continued is difficult to deny, but some continue to do so. The consequences of ignoring the life-saving role of mask-wearing can endanger not only you, but those around you.

Dr. Cameron Webb, J.D., M.D., a senior policy advisor for COVID-19 Equity on the White House Response Team, told the AmNews that, “in terms of the masking piece, there’s just no basis in fact that it’s causing the illnesses that we’re seeing...It’s just a dynamic epidemiologically that we have to acknowledge and say there’s more risks now. Still, I would say it’s a good reason to encourage folks to wear masks.”

Elizabeth Wrigley-Fields, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociolo- gy at the University of Minnesota, talked to the AmNews about masks as one of a number of tools, including air quality, ventilation, and filtration, to protect against infections. “Masks right now are an important way that we can keep ourselves and each other safe, ” she said. “Masking in a public context that everybody needs to be able to access, like grocery stores and schools, is a way that those spaces can be accessible to everyone, regardless of their level of risk.”

Webb added that “I want to disavow us of that notion that masks are somehow the boogeyman or somehow a bad thing. In a lot of countries, mask-wearing is normalized in cold and flu season and the reason is that it prevents you from getting sick. That’s one of the ways you can help do that, so I think that, again, it’s a little bit of an ideological reset for us. We don’t need to polarize masks or politicize masks or vaccines. Everybody’s just trying to stay healthy during these months, and those are some of the tools we have to do just that.”

Claim: Wearing masks causes people to get sick

Factcheck: False. Wearing masks, particularly high-quality masks correctly, can safeguard you and those around you from COVID and other respiratory illnesses.

According to the Mayo Clinic in their article Myth: Wearing a cloth mask does not protect you from getting COVID-19, “Countries that required face masks, testing, isolation, and social distancing early in the pandemic seem to have had some success slowing the disease’s spread... The overall number of droplets in the air is reduced when more people wear masks, and this reduces the risk of being exposed to COVID-19.”

Authors Kimberly M. Dickinson, MD, MPH & Theresa W. Guilbert, MD, MS, FAAP squarely tackle this myth in their ar- ticle “Mask Mythbusters: Common Questions about Kids & Face Masks”: “No. Wearing a face mask does not weaken your immune system or increase your chances of getting sick if exposed to the COVID-19 virus. Wearing a mask, even if you do not have symptoms of COVID19, helps prevent the virus from spreading. Another benefit of wearing masks is that they may keep people from touching their mouths and faces, which is another way COVID, colds, flu and RSV, and other respiratory diseases are spread.” a decline in new admittances and an increase in students who were enrolled but left the system as “discharges.” The number of students who were discharged to school outside of the city “increased dramatically” in 2021 to 2022, most likely as a delayed effect of the pandemic. For the most part, students who left moved to other parts of the state or New Jersey and Connecticut. Those who went south mostly went to Florida.

While there is absolutely no evidence that wearing masks increases respiratory infections, including COVID-19, there is substantial evidence that masks, when worn properly, play an important role—along with proper vaccination—in reducing your chances of being infected.

For additional resources about COVID-19, visit www1.nyc.gov/ site/coronavirus/index.page or call 311. COVID-19 testing, masks, and vaccination resources can also be accessed on the AmNews COVID-19 page: www.amsterdamnews.com/covid/.

The DOE concluded that 27.8% of Asian students were more likely to move to Long Island, while 27.9% of Black students were more likely to move down South. White and/or Arabic students were more likely to move internationally. Students in poverty were more likely to move to Pennsylvania and down South as well.

“There’s a story that people tell when Black and brown kids leave the system that can be very different than the story folks will tell if white kids leave the system,” said Capers. “White students leave and they start their own pods, and that’s seen as a natural evolution of a failing system, versus Black and brown kids leave and go back to their home countries or to the South. In reality, people are just trying to take care of themselves.”

According to Kaliris Y. SalasRamirez, a medical lecturer who was appointed by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine as a member of the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP), significant reductions in enrollment can be due to students having caregivers who died during the COVID crisis. She added that in her district in East Harlem, many families of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent sent their kids back to their islands.

“The DOE…use[s] those enrollment projections for schools so they can determine budgets and this year, they were really really off because they were using the last two years of enrollment trends,” said Salas-Ramirez. This “pandemic mindset” approach to budgeting is why advocates were so upset with Mayor Eric Adams’s budget last summer, she said. She said that principals told them that their schools weren’t underenrolled.

Gonzales noted that Adams’s claim that school budget cuts were necessary as a result of enrollment declines felt “very dubious.” He said that Adams proposed slashing school budgets back in February of 2022, long before he started using the enrollment decline as a talking point.

“We didn’t see the dramatic decrease in enrollment we were expecting and then add on the buses of migrant children that were coming to our schools—about 12,000,” said Salas-Ramirez.

Capers said it’s puzzling that the DOE hasn’t figured out a better way to fully fund schools instead of relying on such a constantly fluctuating formula. The “per pupil capita” model is outdated and “inequitable,” with schools that have overcrowded class sizes and are still lacking in funding, she said.

“Like districts and schools across the county, our enrollment has been impacted by fluctuations resulting from the pandemic, as well as long-term trends in birth rates,” said First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg in a statement. “In response, Chancellor Banks and his leadership team are focused on increasing enrollment in our public schools, and these efforts are starting to show signs of progress.”

Weisberg said the DOE has been working on listening to families and school communities to make the enrollment process easier and more transparent. Above all, the DOE is trying to account for the impact on school budgets.

This year, Adams and Banks approved proposed reforms to the Fair Student Funding (FSF) formula that determines how schools get money. The proposals include an additional consideration for students in temporary housing or living in poverty, students with disabilities, English language learners, and asylumseeking students

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1