While most states are relaxing mask and social distancing mandates as more Americans take the COVID-19 vaccine, Michigan is going in the opposite direction. The state just announced that 2, 3, and 4-year-old children are now required to wear a mask in public at all times. Local media coverage has focused on the terrible consequences for daycares and other early childhood education centers, but there’s an even more troubling consequence at work. Read what a Michigan pediatrician told news outlet told WZZM-TV: “I’ve seen a huge increase in comfortability, even in my own office, with kids who at the beginning of this whole thing were having to wear masks in the office,” he added to WZZM. “You know, now I see them and it’s like nothing is even happening. They’re just totally comfortable with it.”If adults are “modeling good behavior and talking to [kids] about it, and taking away that kind of stigma of it being bad, then they’re more likely to wear it. So, put it on their stuffed animals. Show pictures of other kids wearing it. And, as they get older they’re obviously going to ask more questions and you can be able to explain, ‘you know you’re wearing this to help protect yourself and to help protect others and doing your part to get through this pandemic.'” SEE ALSO: Bernie Sanders’ Fantastic First 100 Days with President Biden in Office Did you catch that? Kids are getting more comfortable with big-government mask mandates. Even worse, this doctor is assuming the mandates are here to stay: “as they get older, they’re going to ask more questions,” he says of Michigan children. “Fifteen days to slow the spread” has turned into a multi-year campaign that kids will be forced to submit to “as they get older.” Kids don’t know that these mandates are coming from overreaching politicians and bureaucrats. They’re just doing what they’re told and imitating their parents. But that fact should give parents an even greater sense of responsibility. Do we want to teach our kids to submit to draconian mandates based neither in science nor common sense? Or do we want to raise kids who question ridiculous orders and stand up for their freedoms? Because let’s be clear: making 2, 3, and 4-year-olds wear masks is ridiculous. I won’t pretend to be an epidemiologist (unlike most political commentators these days), but everyone knows there’s no evidence that kids spread COVID-19. Europe opened their schools months ago, and no study has found schools or daycares to be a significant source of spread. Health officials in Michigan worry about a new COVID variant that supposedly makes kids sicker. But notice how vague the media coverage has been. “The data recently has shown an increase in children,” says the doctor quoted above, without providing a specific number. SEE ALSO: Lebron James Looks the Other Way on China’s Human Rights Abuses. Here’s Why I Never Will. “The State of Michigan has seen an increase in children cases of COVID-19,” says WZZM, without mentioning the extent of that increase. “Last week, Spectrum Health and Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital leaders said they are treating more children for the virus than ever before, even ones with no underlying conditions,” the outlet continues, without attaching a specific number to this statement. Are hospitals treating one more child than ever before? Two more? Ten thousand more? Details matter, especially when it comes to our kids. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, health officials and the media in Michigan haven’t provided those details. I hope parents in Michigan stand up to these tyrannical, anti-science mask orders—not because it’s inconvenient for the kids and teachers (which it is), but because taking a stand will teach the next generation of Americans that mindlessly following orders goes against everything our country was founded upon.
