February 2022

Dr. Tomás Aragón, Director

California Department of Public Health

Kim Johnson, Director

California Department of Social Services

Dear Dr. Aragón and Ms. Johnson,

As parents and childcare providers, we are writing to strongly urge an immediate transition to optional child masking and removal of mandatory quarantines in daycare and preschool settings.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia recently published very reasonable recommendations for children under 5 years old, stating that “Given the lower risk of severe infections in younger children, it would be reasonable to allow ECE settings to transition to mask optional approaches.” Noting that Covid-19 has similar impacts to this group’s health as other respiratory viruses, they recommend symptomatic children stay home for five days, but do not require testing or quarantines for exposed but healthy children. We believe it is time for CDPH to enact similar recommendations, especially because the agency hasn’t updated its guidelines for childcare facilities since June 2021.

Our toddlers and preschoolers have had their childhoods uprooted for 21 months. They spend their days surrounded by masked faces, unable to see their caregivers’ and peers’ facial expressions. They’ve often come home with face rashes, aching ears, and masks that are chewed through and soaked with snot and saliva. As for the quarantine policies, they have been subjected to countless closures and disruptions in routine because they are unable to be vaccinated and are considered “close contacts” of children who test positive for Covid-19. 

These overly restrictive policies are out of step with the way the international community has handled young children during the pandemic. Other countries acknowledge that the risk of Covid-19 to young children is equal to or lower than that of RSV and flu. As the CHOP recommendations state: “COVID-related hospitalizations in infants and toddlers today are virtually indistinguishable from those of children with other seasonal illnesses that hospitals routinely encounter every winter when respiratory viruses spread throughout early care and education (ECE) settings.”

This recommendation is in line with research showing that unvaccinated children under six are at extremely low risk of severe illness from Covid-19 even when compared to healthy, vaccinated young adults. More young children are hospitalized and die from the flu and RSV in a typical year, and we don’t mask and quarantine healthy children or their teachers to prevent them from contracting those illnesses. In addition, multiple studies have shown that the very low prevalence of symptoms of long COVID, many of which are vague and common (such as headache and fatigue), are similar in children with and without a history of Covid-19. 

As for masking, the World Health Organization states that “Children aged 5 years and under should not be required to wear masks.” Many countries, including the U.K., Ireland, all of Scandinavia, France, and the Netherlands don’t even mask elementary school children, and there is no evidence of increased outbreaks or community spread. These countries’ public health leaders understand that the very small risk Covid-19 poses to children is not worth potentially harming their speech and social-emotional development through prolonged masking. In short, kids under five are at the least risk from this virus, but at the greatest risk of harm from mitigation measures. 

It is well documented that early childhood is considered a critical period for the development of understanding and processing emotions. Young children need to see full faces to learn to speak, read emotions, learn social cues, and build the foundation for literacy. Recent research has suggested that masking has resulted in children aged three to five finding it difficult to read emotions.

Further, there is no evidence that masking in childcare facilities has even been effective. In addition to the fact that many preschoolers are incapable of masking correctly, they remove their masks several times a day for snacks, meals, and multi-hour-long naps. These breaks negate any purported benefits of masking. As a recent piece noted, “In evidence-based medicine, the burden of proof is on the intervention, not the norm. The norm is seeing human faces. The intervention is endless masking.”

We have also seen no evidence that onerous childcare quarantines have reduced community spread. When facilities shut down due to one child testing positive for Covid-19, working parents are left scrambling for childcare. We are also punished economically by having to cover tuition without receiving childcare: if a given childcare facility costs $75/day, parents could be throwing away $375 per week of closure, and the guidelines could trigger multiple shutdowns of this type each time a child tests positive. This burden disproportionately falls on mothers, whose careers have been devastated during the pandemic due to prolonged closures of K-12 schools and childcare facilities. 

Just this week, the San Francisco Department of Public Health updated its guidelines to remove asymptomatic quarantines from childcare settings, implementing a “test to stay” approach, as we see in K-12 schools. For the sake of working parents, we urge you to implement this policy throughout California.

Finally, it is clear that mask mandates for young children (as well as K-12 students) are largely performative rather than effective, as California’s indoor mask mandate is not enforced for adults. Governor Gavin Newsom and other California politicians openly violated their own mask mandate at the NFC Championship Football Game last Sunday. Meanwhile, extremely low-risk children are forced to mask for six to eight hours a day. If it is safe for adults, then it is safe for our children—particularly given that Omicron has infected millions of people regardless of vaccination status. With the arrival of this variant and California’s high vaccination rate, Covid-19 case numbers have been decoupled from severe disease and death. 

These are precious years for our children that they cannot recover. Now that Omicron is subsiding and we are moving toward endemicity, we strongly urge you to remove all restrictions in childcare settings (including mandatory masks for vaccinated providers) immediately to avoid further developmental harm to our youngest generation of Californians. 

Sign Letter here: https://www.caparentpower.org/signletter