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© KYODOGov't panel recommends kids wear face masks at daycares
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© KYODO
91 Comments
Asiaman7
Good luck implementing that with any success. Let me guess, the government panel is stacked with older men whose wives did all the child rearing.
WeiWei
Another panel with clueless idiots. They should have said stop the mask nonsense for kids as it is detrimental to their development and useless in preventing anything.
shogun36
recommendations given by roomfuls of old men who have never taken care of kids in any form.
yeah, thanks for the advice, but in reality, that’s virtually impossible to enforce on young toddlers, all day long.
vic.M
Do these so called experts know more about the real experts in virology who are actually researchers and scientists like Dr Michael Yeadon ex CEO and chief scientist of Phizer who state that masks are not effective against viruses ?
rcch
...
so... Back to square one.
...
500 years ago in Japan, I would probably listen to some “ recommendations “ from a bunch of oyajis. 2022 and Japan is still stuck with these same old men.
...
Leave the kids alone.
Yubaru
I played Santa at a daycare center last Christmas, and I saw just how "effective" ( ho-ho-ho NOT) masks work with 2 to 5 year old kids!
One kid had such a snotty nose that when he started to cry, it blew up into a balloon the size of a 5 yen coin at least, and that coming from a 1 year and a little kid, who had a mask stuck under his tiny chin!
These idiots have no idea what they are "recommending"
Mark
Sure, you try to keep a face mask on a 6 months old baby and let me know how it went, LOL
tooheysnew
The best way to stop the fear of Covid is to turn the tv off
Oxycodin
I agree @bronco. Too add it’s not good to inhale the materials of the mask particles as well which gives people the something feels stuck in the back of my throat which could possibly cause lung problem in the future. We’re not supposed to be wearing masks all day long.
Cricky
To be fair the panel members do have nasal oxygen delivered around the clock, just can’t see it under their masks. Of course they assume everyone else has the same.
purple_depressed_bacon
A mighty bold statement coming from a bunch of old geezers who've probably never even held a baby before let alone raised one because child rearng is "a woman's job".
Children at daycare age literally touch everything in sight then stick those same hands in their mouths and on their faces... And sometimes on other kids' faces and in other kids' mouths. Asking them to wear a face mask is like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound - useless and ineffective. It'll just encourage the little ones to touch their faces more out of irritation and annoyance.
thepersoniamnow
This is a rather odd thing to be reading now.
Do these dinosaurs think thry are altering policy? The daycares and elementary students have been dealing with this and partitions and air cleaners and gloves for two years now on a daily basis, and the LDP decides that today this should be national news to help curb Omicron…
zzzzz
OldNormal
I’m so glad I decided to move out of this mask obsessed country. What a crazy place.
Yubaru
Who is talking cloth masks?
Sleepytanuki
What are you talking about? We've been wearing masks at daycares since 2020 according to city guidelines.
Yubaru
That's what we pay for it seems!
noriahojanen
but stopped short of suggesting a specific age due to concerns over health risks.
If implementing a mask rule, they shoud target the specific place or time, not age. Age division is futile to curb spread so long as kids at different ages share the same floors.
Yubaru
FYI, you are cherry picking what you THINK the CDC said to further your own agenda of misinformation.
And you are passing off your comments as "fact" but it isnt.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/10/20-0948_article
Wick's pencil
Maybe they're pushing this useless measure to encourage parents to adopt another useless measure and vaccinate their kids.
SAME#
Exactly! Same here. Implemented in spring 2020 for kids as of 3 years old. And they can do it and have no problem keeping it on.
Daycares also implemented partitions, use of disposable wipes instead of handkerchief, mouth gargling and they are cleaning everything, including toys very frequently. They also open windows before and after class, stopped having kids brush their teeth and kids clean their hands more thoroughly and more than before Covid.
I don't like kids wearing masks but I'm just pointing here the idiocy of this message when it's already been implemented alongside many other mitigation measures.
Bill Adams
More mask idiocy. This gets more risible by the day.
Kobe White Bar Owner
In the words of Pink Floyd.
hey gg leave them kids alone!
miss_oikawa
Brilliant idea! This will stop all the millions, I mean thousands, err I mean hundreds, sorry I meant 10s, wait a minute have ANY children actually died of this mild respiratory virus?????
NOMINATION
My kids' nursery school already requires masks. It stays on my 3 year old's face for about 3 minutes before he throws it off drenched in drool.
Hervé L'Eisa
The "science" of masks, in Fauci's own words (before wearing of masks became politicized)..
https://brownstone.org/articles/when-fauci-told-the-truth-about-masking/
On February 4, 2020, just a month before his 60 Minutes interview, and two months before the CDC, with Fauci’s support, changed their mask guidance, he received an email from Sylvia Burwell, who had previously worked as a secretary of Health and Human Services under President Obama.
Burwell asked Fauci if she should bring a mask with her while traveling, to which he responded: “Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection.”
More importantly, he gave her one of the many scientifically based reasons why it wasn’t necessary, “The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material. It might, however, provide some slight benefit in keep[ing] out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you. I do not recommend that you wear a mask…”
jder
Yeah. Good luck with that.
Michael Machida
TRANSLATION: People told people to wear face masks during a pandemic. Wow!
smithinjapan
"We recommend it, so we can say we've done something, but we leave it entirely up to you, so we cannot be blamed for anything. We also recommend daycares with infections close down for a time, but we cannot assist you with such things. Up to you!"
Anyway, I can just imagine the hot mess that the masks will become, with kids constantly touching them (if they stay up), pulling them down, wiping snotty faces, touching others with the dirty hands, etc.
I KNOW that closing them down and asking kids to stay home is not at all ideal, especially for working parents (forget the moms who just want to lunch at hotel buffets), but using this as a way to prevent the spread instead of closing them down is just silly.
master
its child abuse at this point.
Adults are sacrificing the lives of children for their own twisted sense of safety.
carp_boya
I have two kids in daycare and I work with children. There’s no chance a two year old is going to wear a mask. The kids I work with are pretty good about keeping their masks on from around age four. But we don’t require anyone younger that that to wear one because it’s pointless to try.
This government panel sounds pretty out of touch with young children.
hattorikun
Looks like a lot of commenters here don’t actually live here and know what’s going on around town. Kids have been wearing masks. And voluntarily so. Also masks are recommended here for adults. No enforcement. So criticize as you wish, who cares. It’s just ridiculous. We are fine with what we have been doing here.
rainyday
With older kids I get it, but with kids that young masks are at best a decorative placebo that has zero chance of being effective.
YeahRight
Yeah, sorry, but not sorry, risks of suffocation and heat stroke are just as valid for adults as it is for children. I work at a kindergarten, and I saw more masks among the kids before the pandemic than now. I don't know why, but my guess would be pollen. I have two co-workers who religiously wore masks contract Corona. I have a medical exemption and wear only a mouth shield, which is bad enough. There is no way you will ever convince me that a flimsy piece of paper or cloth does anyone any good. Get the jab, take off the mask, and show me your beautiful face.
OldNormal
How about everyone just take the masks off and be done with this insanity. You all had great childhoods and teenage years and now your helping to create a society of fear for the children. This is why I’m leaving Japan. I value freedom rather than safety.
my 10 year old even gets it. We went to America this summer and he got to see everyone going about their daily lives massless and he thought it was great. We weren’t walking over bodies.
master
Imagine thinking a child is voluntarily wearing a mask!
Kobe White Bar Owner
Will my kids nursery continue to keep all their toothbrushes in the same bag though….
John-San
Mask do work. Fools assume it prevent airborne infections. Mask do work in contact infection. Most infection occur from touching surface then touching the mouth. When you are wearing a mask contact infection due to hand touching mouths don’t happen because there is barrier between hand and mouths. So those saying mask don’t work are not taken into account contact infection.
Oxycodin
Time to take the Mask's off the Jgovt must be making mega $$$ off by forcing everyone to buy masks. These mask dont provide protection from virus unless they are at least N95 or above period.
justasking
The government's solution to the pandemic has always been for people to carry more burden. Useless government. Useless Kishida.
Nihon Tora
You wouldn’t get my 2 year old to wear a mask for more than about 20 seconds - even if it was an Anpanman one.
falseflagsteve
This is ludicrous and sickening. No kiddie under 10 has died of Covid in Japan. Children of this age use facial expressions to understand others reactions. Their developmental skills are retarded by wearing masks around their peers on a daily basis, this is scientifically proved and is common sense to anyone with a basic understanding of child development.
The world has gone potty, common sense and science is not put into practice. It’s all about worst case scenarios, and finding danger where it isn’t present.
hattorikun
“Please if you have the data to prove that mask are preventing people from catching Covid”
not sure if Elvis has the data but for me a mask is what I have been using, besides other practices of personal hygiene, healthy lifestyles, lots of sunshine, to stay away from cold, flu, seasonal allergies, and COVID. Or maybe am just a type of person who has been somehow evading the virus… Hope I will remain that way. I am covid vaxx free but I had my seasonal shot as usual. A meaningful criterion or data I would look at is the difference in death tolls between the US, where the use of masks is downplayed, and Japan… not sure if the correlation is significant but tell me otherwise. A mask for me is not going to prevent you in absolute terms from getting infections especially if you don’t use it properly. But it’s a simple first line of defense. It doesn’t kill you. Vaxx will also be a good defense, if it works for you, but it can also harm you in some unfortunate cases.
Numan
Is this the same panel with connections to the wasted money idea that later became known as the "Abe no mask" scandal?
Any connection to the sudden request for "Abe no mask" for some manufactured positive publicity for the ex-PM.
Numan
Manufactured positive publicity to appear to be doing something because the infection numbers are increasing, and they do not have clue about anything.
hattorikun
“Imagine thinking a child is voluntarily wearing a mask!”
they are doing that. i would a lot of them on their ways to school while I was jogging, maskless. I do see some toddlers with masks but that’s a lot more uncommon.
hattorikun
“How about everyone just take the masks off and be done with this insanity. You all had great childhoods and teenage years and now your helping to create a society of fear for the children. This is why I’m leaving Japan. I value freedom rather than safety.
my 10 year old even gets it. We went to America this summer and he got to see everyone going about their daily lives massless and he thought it was great. We weren’t walking over bodies.”
@Old Normal.
Glad you are happy now in the US. Why do you still bother commenting here on a JP platform… Missing Japan yet?
Alechz
ketocoffee wrote
Imagine hitting upload on an AIER link as an argument. With names like Naomi Wolf, Charles Koch and Exxon behind it, you know it's reputable.
And by reputable, I mean garbage.
I'm tired of the J-Gov consistently playing off the back foot, but I'm far more fatigued by the terminally-online Facebook group types who hoot and holler for the sheeple to wake up, waving unreviewed papers by ousted cranks.
Lindsay
Another brilliant idea from the J-Gov. Good luck getting a two year old to wear a mask all day. Do these people actually think about what they suggest?
it is true that daycare centers are little virus factories. When my kids were little and going to daycare they always had a runny nose and came home with fever a couple of times a year. However, I don’t think having the kids wear masks is the answer. The staff need to be more vigilant in cleaning and disinfecting the centers. Washing the kids’ hands regularly would be a good start.
El Rata
LOL I bet the clowns at the 'expert' panel have never been close to a young child. Good luck enforcing that.
Jim
Exactly! You’ve stated the obvious which people seem to ignore. Even people with low level IQ can surely understand this!
I always wear a mask every time I go to a public area just to be considerate of others but try to limit myself in these areas for just a few minutes at most. Luckily with work from home being implemented by my company I don’t need to wear a mask for long moments. Seriously the world needs to come up with a much better plan than masks to deal with Covid-19 as in the long run the effects of long term usage of mask can be damaging to the human body!
WilliB
....which applies to all kindergarteners. Masking little kids is not only inhuman, it is insane.
WilliB
Jim
How about following Denmark, which has lifted all Covid restrictions? I do not think that Danish Omicron is different from Japanese Omicron...
cleo
900,000 bodies in America, and counting.
Is that great, too?
Kumagaijin
This will be short term because daycares will be empty in a few years anyways. I mean, people weren't having kids before Covid-19. The birthrate in Japan is now at the predicted 2030 level.
James
I honestly found the comments more enlightening than the article. So far so that I nearly fell out of my chair.
ROFLOL
Gosh so many quoting from unreliable sources it isn't funny do you guys really believe the non sensical baloney about masks from places like newspapers? No wonder places outside of Japan are struggling with millions of cases.
Wearing masks and sanitizing hands and keeping good ventilation etc. work at slowing down the rate of transmission. and the proof is in the pudding.
And that is the main reason why Japan hasn't peaked with omicron cases like it was expected to and it is taking longer for it to get around.
Steven Mccarthy
Here the jgov goes again with recommendations. I agree that children should not be required to mask up. To a certain point . I wish Japan would report the number of deaths from Covid of all ages of children . But the FACT is, they do NOT report the numbers of children who have died from Covid. Checked FACT. So instead of masking up more , the jgov should do the hard but right thing and lock it down. 3-4 weeks should do it . Not some toothless SOE as they don’t curb anything. 2 years have already been wasted so go ahead . Call me a fear monger all you want . I’d rather qualify as a fear monger than to lack common sense and deny basic science. Masks are only 1 tool in the many tools most refuse to even consider . But these stories to add just a tad of comedy in reading the many false claims by people with zero credibility on children .
OldNormal
@hattorikun
i meant I have decided , haven’t moved yet.
OldNormal
@James
your source is pudding?
there are too many variables to consider to claim what works and what doesn’t. There have been no double blind studies in a controlled environment simply because it can’t be done.
if you want to watch tv and keep a mask on be my guest. Don’t force children and others to force others to change their lives due to your hypochondria.
japanese haven’t changed their mask wearing habits the whole time and omicron spread anyway. Enough is enough. Let the kids breath. Show your smiles. This has already caused enough mental illness in society.
kyushubill
Yet ... they already have been.
kurisupisu
The sooner Omicron infects the majority then the sooner it is that life goes back to normal
Seesaw7
Yesterday i was in same train coach with 2 no mask kids. I moved to another coach followed by a couple of other passengers. The kids mom noticed it. I hope next time she make sure her kids have masks on.