President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, said Thursday that parents should still be masking children and that local COVID-19 restrictions may need to return as cases rise.
In an interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, Jha was asked point blank if he believes “little kids” should still be wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jha did not explicitly answer yes, but deflected to “experts” who all recommend that kids still mask.
“That is what both the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends, that’s what the CDC recommends, so I really do follow the experts on this,” Jha answered. “I believe that if America’s pediatricians are making those recommendations, I’m certainly going to take that pretty seriously.”
Not all experts recommend that children wear masks. The World Health Organization (WHO) does not recommend that pre-adolescent kids wear masks due to the potential impact on “learning and psychosocial development.” Numerous American medical experts, from Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford to Dr. Martin Kulldorff, formerly of Harvard, argue that kids don’t need masks. The most common arguments against masking kids are that they are at extremely low risk of serious COVID-19 cases themselves, and all adults around them have had the opportunity to get vaccinated and boosted already. (RELATED: Kyrsten Sinema Points Out Biden Hypocrisy On Title 42, COVID)
Jha was also asked about the Biden administration’s decision to end Title 42 while extending the public transportation mask mandate for Americans. Jha argued that public transit is a prime place for viral spread due to travelers being in close proximity for extended periods of time, but scientific evidence shows that airplanes are one of the safest places to be with regard to indoor air quality.