Seventy doctors request abolition of mandatory mouth mask in school …

In an open letter to Flemish Minister of Education Ben Weyts (N-VA), seventy doctors ask to abolish the mandatory mouth mask at school, both for the teaching staff and for the students. They ask that the minister immediately reverse his working method.

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“In recent months, the general well-being of children and young people has come under severe pressure. We see an increasing number of children and young people in our practices with complaints due to the rules of conduct that have been imposed on them, ”the doctors write. “We diagnose anxiety and sleeping problems, behavioral disorders and fear of contamination. We are seeing an increase in domestic violence, isolation and deprivation. Many lack physical and emotional contact; attachment problems and addiction are obvious. “

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“The mandatory mouth mask in schools is a major threat to their development. It ignores the essential needs of the growing child. The well-being of children and young people is highly dependent on the emotional connection with others. (…) The aim of education is to create an optimal context so that a maximum development of young people is possible. The school environment must be a safe practice field. The mouth mask obligation, on the other hand, makes the school a threatening and unsafe environment, where emotional connection becomes difficult. ”

In addition, according to the signatories, “there is no large-scale evidence that wearing face masks in a non-professional environment has any positive effect on the spread of viruses, let alone on general health. Nor is there any legal basis for implementing this obligation. In the meantime, it is clear that healthy children who undergo Covid-19 heal by default without complications and that they subsequently contribute to the protection of their fellow humans by increasing herd immunity. ”

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“The only meaningful measure to prevent serious illness and mortality from COVID-19 is to isolate individual teachers and individual children at risk. This risk assessment is not the task of the Ministry of Education, but the task of the treating doctors in consultation with their patient. ”

The open letter aims to initiate a binding, open debate, it says.

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