Hacker News Reader

Comment by christkv | Hacker News Reader

If you have small children you know what joke masks are in school. Little kids are not responsible adults. They touch their face, take their masks on and off, exchange them with their friends and even eat them.

Pretending that masks on young kids contribute anything to slowing the spread is complete wishful thinking.

View on HN

Well, if you have elderly parents you will also learn a thing or five about mask-wearing discipline. They will do all of the things above (except maybe eating them). My personal favorite: removing the mask when they have to cough. And even in the in-between age groups, the "responsible adults" are fewer than you might think...

And yet my impression of slightly older children and teens (admittedly in Canada) is that they're better and more consistent at mask wearing than adults are. My son couldn't care less if he's wearing a mask or not -- heck I think he hates wearing socks more.

I wonder how much of these breathless articles against masking children is more about adults than about the children.

I second this. The article mentions how dubious it is that kids can wear their masks properly. I’ll site my own son who routinely pulls his down below his mouth and nose. I can imagine the stress on teachers who have to keep up appearances that masks are being enforced while also watching the kids in their class do anything but keep them on in an effective manner.

About 50% wear masks correctly when it's mandated. Correcting them works for 30s to 5 min.

Hell, quite a few adults do that stuff.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com