News Analysis Should children be required to wear masks at school? A review of the costs and benefits, including some of the latest science, does not add much to the case for mandating school masks. First, some basics. The risk of death from COVID-19 among schoolchildren is very, very low. How Low? A Nature study estimating the COVID-19 infection fatality rate (IFR), or proportion of those infected who die, found IFRs of just 0.001 percent in children aged 5–9, and IFRs well below 0.01 percent in all those aged 19 and under. That’s less than one in 10,000 among teenagers and less than one in 100,000 in 5- to 9-year-old children. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which has advocated masking children aged 2 and up, found that only 460 children had died of COVID-19 between late May 2020 and Sept. 9, 2021 across 45 states, New York City, Guam, …
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