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Help Jenny Porter recover from her vaccine injury: LifeFunder

SAN DIEGO (LifeSiteNews) – The San Diego Unified School District announced last Friday amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in San Diego County that it would reimpose indoor mask mandates for students, teachers, and staff attending summer school programs and summer enrichment activities run by the district.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data showed that transmission of the disease in San Diego County was “high.”

“Effective Monday, July 18, indoor masking will be required at all schools and District offices,” the district announced. “We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 community level according to the CDC and County data and we will communicate if there are any changes in two weeks.”

“As a reminder, the District established criteria approved by our Board on May 24, 2022 that, if reached, would require a return to mandatory indoor masking,” the district continued. “This week, one of those criteria was reached, with San Diego County entering the ‘high’ COVID-19 community level.”

In a statement released to LifeSiteNews by Sharon McKeeman, founder of anti-mandate group Let Them Breath, McKeeman pointed out that the decision to reintroduce the mandate was unscientific.

“San Diego Unified’s return to masking Monday July 18th is not supported by science and will be harmful to students in summer school who are trying to recuperate from learning loss incurred during school closures,” McKeeman told LifeSite.

“Studies show that masking children makes NO difference in transmission rates, but it does harm social and linguistic development. Let Them Breathe and local families will oppose any returns to forced masking and SDUSD needs to follow the science and revise their policy.”

McKeeman also pointed out that most school districts in California have not imposed mask mandates on students and that a mask mandate doesn’t exist in California. She maintains that  parents are concerned that the district is not following the interests of students in reintroducing the mandate, and that the parents hold that the mandate does not follow scientific data that indicates that masking does not affect the transmission of COVID-19, and that it leads to various developmental and psychological problems in children.

Richard Barrera, a school board trustee, speaking with KUSI, disagreed with McKeeman, saying of the mandate that “This is a well-established strategy. It’s highly recommended by the CDC, highly recommended by the state department of public health, highly recommended by all local public health experts. And so it’s very well understood, and I think it’s very well understood by our families in the district.”

Data suggests that while mandates increase the use of masks, masks themselves are ineffective at stopping the spread of contagion. A study from May 2021 found that “mask mandates and use (were) not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 spread among U.S. states” from March 2020 to March 2021. The researchers behind the study found the results to be negative, with masks increasing “dehydration … headaches and sweating and decreas[ing] cognitive precision,” and interfering with communication, as well as impairing social learning among children.

Further data suggests that mask mandates have negatively affected children’s ability to learn languages and the ability to recognize facial expressions. A German survey published last year showed that parents also reported that their children were experiencing other effects of masking including malaise, unhappiness, and impaired learning ability.

Masks have been optional in San Diego schools since April. The current mandate will last two weeks, after which time the district will determine whether or not the mandate should be extended. No announcement has been made with regard to mandates for the fall semester.

McKeeman has come into conflict with San Diego schools and the state of California in the past over COVID measures. Last year, Let Them Choose, a partner organization with Let Them Breath, won a lawsuit against the district over its jab mandate. The judge, John Mayer, stated that the district attempted “to impose an additional requirement in a field that the Legislature fully occupies.”

A judge sided with the state of California last year after McKeeman and the Reopen California Schools, an anti-mandate group, filed a lawsuit fighting the state’s previous statewide mask mandate.

California has declined to vote on the imposition of any further mask mandates, instead recommending that students and teachers receive jabs and wear masks.

Help Jenny Porter recover from her vaccine injury: LifeFunder

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