(LifeSiteNews) – Draconian COVID-19 masking policies left children growing up during the pandemic less able to differentiate the emotions behind facial expressions, according to a new peer-reviewed study.
In the paper, published in the journal Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands studied data from 349 infants 4-6 months old, 351 infants 9-11 months old, and 235 children 2-4 years old, and compared the ability to process faces before and during the pandemic.
What they found was “no meaningful difference” in the ability to recognize faces as faces, but “across ages,” those tested during the pandemic “did not neurocognitively differentiate between happy and fearful expressions. This effect was primarily attributed to a reduced amplitude in response to happy faces,” suggesting that “post-pandemic children have a reduced familiarity or attention towards happy facial expressions.”
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Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government recommended wearing face coverings in the presence of others, advice that many states and localities used to impose mask mandates on a wide range of public gatherings. But evidence has long since shown that masking was largely ineffective at limiting the spread of the virus.
Among that evidence is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC’s) September 2020 admission that masks cannot be relied on to keep out COVID when spending 15 minutes or longer within six feet of someone. A 2020 study published by the peer-reviewed CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases likewise found that it “did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons … or by persons in the general community to reduce their susceptibility.”
In May 2021, another study found that, though mandates were largely followed, usage did not yield the expected benefits. “Mask mandates and use (were) not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 spread among U.S. states” from March 2020 to March 2021, it said. In fact, the researchers found the results to be a net negative, with masks increasing “dehydration … headaches and sweating and decreas[ing] cognitive precision,” as well as impairing social learning among children.
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More than 170 studies have found that masks have been ineffective at stopping COVID while instead being harmful, especially to children, who evidence finds face little-to-no-danger from COVID itself. In contrast, evidence suggests that the ability to see faces is critical for early development.
“The potential educational harms of mandatory-masking policies are much more firmly established, at least at this point, than their possible benefits in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in schools,” University of California-San Francisco epidemiologist Professor Vinay Prasad says. “Early childhood is a crucial period when humans develop cultural, language, and social skills, including the ability to detect emotion on other people’s faces.”
Last year, the U.S. House Oversight & Accountability Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released what it called the “single most thorough review of the pandemic conducted to date.” It found, among other things, that masking, school closings, and lockdowns caused significant harm to the economy, to physical and mental health, and to children’s education and social development, far outweighing whatever good they may have done.
