Children share why they hate wearing masks: ‘I want to see my friends’ faces’

In Minnesota, of the total 7,427 deaths from COVID-19, the 0-19 age category makes up three of those deaths.

Stock photo/Unsplash

Minnesota students said they experience “high anxiety” and feel “uncomfortable” and “scared” when wearing masks.

An organization called Mask Off MN recently released a video featuring several Minnesota children who shared why they hate masks. The video was published after new data from the CDC showed that children have a 99.94% chance of surviving COVID-19, according to the video.

“Sometimes I would come home crying because [the headaches] were so bad,” a fourth-grader says in the video.

Many children don’t like wearing masks because they become dizzy, hot, and get headaches during school from wearing masks for too long.

Several also say they just want to see their friends’ faces, which masks prohibit.

One nine-year-old says masks make him feel “uncomfortable” and “scared.”

“I don’t like to see my friends in masks because I want to see their faces instead of their faces with a mask,” he says in the video.

“Masks make me sad because I can’t see my friends’ faces,” one seven-year-old says.

Kids in the video also express their difficulties with distance learning, which is the best option to avoid wearing a mask.

“I switched to distance learning, and now I’m failing it, and it’s also really hard to interact with some of the kids on there, and it’s hard to make friends on the Google meets,” a fourth-grader shares.

A high-school junior explains that she chose to distance learn to avoid having to mask up in school, only to see her grades fall exponentially.

“I went back to school when school was opened up full-time, but the masks caused me to break out in hives, causing me to have high anxiety,” she says. “It was hard to breathe, it made it so I wasn’t able to focus on school, and my grades still didn’t improve that much.”

The video from Mask Off MN cites information from the WHO and UNICEF, who say that one deciding factor in whether a child should wear a mask is “the potential impact of wearing a mask on learning and psychosocial development.”

“Does it seem like [these children’s] learning and psychosocial development are being negatively impacted due to masks?” the video reads.

Mental health-related emergency room visits saw a dramatic increase in 2020 compared to 2019. For children ages 5-11, there was a 24% increase in mental-health visits, and a 31% increase for 12-17-year-olds, according to data from the CDC.

The video also includes data from the CDC that show children had a 99.6% chance of surviving influenza during the 2018-2019 season. They have a 99.94% chance of surviving COVID-19.

“We have never mandated masks or social distancing for children because of influenza,” Mask Off MN states in their video. Flu vaccines have not been pushed or mandated for children, either.

One fourth-grader says, “I love my school, but I’m not sure if I’m able to go to school as a fifth-grader if this mask thing is still happening.”

A kindergarten student says she doesn’t like masks because they don’t make her feel happy and she can’t breathe in them. A preschooler says he can’t talk, hear other people, or smile while he is wearing a mask.

“Remove the mask mandate in Minnesota schools TODAY. Do not wait until the end of the school year. The children do not deserve this. Unmask them NOW,” the end of the video proclaims.

With 111,959 reported cases among the 0-19 demographic in Minnesota, about 0.002% of kids and teenagers who have caught the virus have died.

Of the total 7,427 deaths from COVID-19, the 0-9 age category makes up three of those deaths. No deaths have occurred for the age group of 10-19 in Minnesota.

 

Rose Williams

Rose Williams is an assistant editor for Alpha News.