The risks from Delta are negligible for children. Masking almost certainly stunts social development, by interfering with the use of non-verbal communication cues like facial expressions, etc.

EDIT: responding to below as I'm rate-limited

>>Do you have any actual evidence that this is true in school-age children (ages 5+)?

Yes, I've already provided the evidence. There was only one hospitalization with a positive covid result in 200,000 children aged 5 - 17 in the US in the week ending July 31st. The CDC page is linked above. The Delta variant was the predominant variant in the US in that period, so this definitively rules it out as a significant danger to children.

You can also look at the Delta variant data from England:

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/06/29/who-is-most-at-risk-from...

>>Nonetheless, the data showed that there have been 117 deaths among people in England who had the delta variant with the majority being in the over-50 age group.

>>There have been eight fatalities among the under-50s with six of them in unvaccinated individuals and the other two in people who had received one dose.

I'd venture to guess that in the time period under study, there were ZERO covid delta variant deaths amongst children in the entirety of England. This would be funny if the destruction caused by this over-reaction wasn't so sad.

EDIT 2:

>>I asked for data to support your claim that masks stunt social development in school age (5+) children.

I don't have any data as we've never had a case of a large cross-section of children being masked for extended periods of their day, so no cause to study its effects. The burden of proof that it's safe is therefore on those advocating this untested policy.

Just common sense tells us masking will interfere with communication. Even doctors who are masked are perceived as less empathatic:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3879648/

Beyond communication, masking interferes with heat dissipation, as it's at least one layer of insulating material on a highly exothermic part of the body. Subjecting almost all children to this for over a year is a massive over-reaction considering the actual risks posed by covid to children.

EDIT 3:

>>> I don't have any data

>>Thanks for clearing that up.

This is a bad faith response that ignores extremely important context and criticism of your masking advocacy.

What this and your other response show, is you don't want to take responsibility for the fact that the burden of proof is on you, to show that masking to this extent does not harm children's development.

EDIT 4:

>>dissipation? Social stigma? WTF?

Not a direct response to me from u/Steltek, but criticizing me to someone else, so I think I'm warranted in responding.

I never said anything about "social stigma". I said it would interfere with the development of communication skills, because it obstructs non-verbal communication cues like facial expressions.

And heat dissipitation is nothing to scoff at, given how much biological evolution has gone toward optimizing bodies to dissipitate heat efficiently, and the damage heat can do to biological organisms.

Any policy that impacts tens of millions of children deserves better than this knee-jerk "anti-masker" prejudice and petty partisanship.