Only 7 Countries in Western World Require Kids Masks in Schools

The U.S. is one of the few countries still recommending masks in schools as most nations let kids attend classes without face coverings.

Although states are allowed to set their own rules, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests universal indoor masking for all students above age two regardless of vaccination status.

In fact, 68.2 percent of the 500 of the largest school districts in America still require masks, according to data analytics firm Burbio.

However, at least 14 countries, including the UK, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Australia, don’t require kids to wear face coverings

Aside from the U.S., DailyMail.com could only identify six other Western countries where masking is broadly required or recommended in schools: Canada, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain.

In Canada, America’s closest neighbor, provinces get to set their own rules just like states do in the U.S., with most instituting mask mandates.

Of the 10 provinces, two require masks for all K-12 students, one requires for grades 1-12, two require for grades 4-12 and three require masking across all students.

The remaining two provinces, Quebec and Newfoundland & Labrador, only don’t require masks if case rates in the surrounding areas are low.

In France, mandatory face masks had been lifted by the requirement is being reimposed for all elementary school students as of November 15 due to rising case rates.  

Meanwhile, in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Romania, millions of children started of the school year wearing masks.

Recent studies have found that children are just as likely as adults to test positive for Covid, but about half are asymptomatic compared to 10 percent of over-18s.

The risk of being hospitalized and death is much smaller with less than 0.1 percent of kids falling severely ill or dying of Covid.

And because of this low risk, most Western nations have opted to ditch the masks and have kids return to ‘normalcy’ in classrooms.

In the UK, for example, millions of children returned to schools in early September with face coverings not required. 

And while masks are a politically divisive issue in the U.S., members of both the Conservative and Labour Parties in the UK have stated that wearing masks prevent children from being able to communicate and socialize.

In Norway, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health advises against school-aged children wearing masks. Pictured: Third grade pupils at Nordstrand Steinerskole school in Oslo, Norway, April 2020

A recent DailyMail.com analysis found that kids in the U.S. are being hospitalized at a rate up to four times higher than kids in the UK.

In Scandinavian countries – Denmark, Norway and Sweden – almost all COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, including mask mandates.

In fact, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health advises against school-aged children wearing masks.

In Irelands, kids under age 13 are not required to wear masks and in Iceland and the Netherlands, middle and high school students are only required to do so when not seated in classrooms.

So why are Europeans less likely to mandate masks in schools? There are a few reasons.

Firstly, many European populations are more vaccinated than several U.S. states.

For example, West Virginia and Idaho have yet to vaccinate 50 percent of their populations compared to more than 70 percent in all Nordic countries, according to data from the U.S. CDC and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Secondly, trust in authority figures is higher in the European Union than in the U.S.

‘Because of this, parents and the policymakers representing them may feel less need to protect children from each other with masks,’ writes Anthony La Mesa in Medium.

Another reason could be that more testing occurs in Europe than in the U.S. 

Currently the UK’s Department of Education requires all secondary school students, between ages 11 and 18, be tested at home twice a week using tests.

Additionally, Norway is mass testing students to phase out quarantining students amid Covid outbreaks.    

Because there is no regular testing at many U.S. schools, kids are being sent to classrooms instead of being kept at home because tests aren’t detecting these cases.

This can lead to these children being hospitalized themselves or infecting other children who end up hospitalized.    

Creative Vaccine Protest in France For Companies That Mandate Vaccines

People in France are going inside stores that force vaccine passports, filling up shopping carts, and leaving them at checkout before leaving. pic.twitter.com/mSed84DCKG

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 28, 2021

People in France are going inside stores that force vaccine passports, filling up shopping carts, and leaving them at checkout before leaving. 

Why Is Google News Censoring The France Protests?

TWiT Tech Podcast Network - This video is from 2019 showing that France has copyright reform issues.  Google can't put up news snippets apparently because of some law according to the video above. 

4th straight week with over 200,000 people took to the streets of French cities to protest against a new "health pass" designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus.  Google News does not cover this story. 

The protesters waved French flags and held signs such as "No to the health pass" and "Liberty!" 

"We want none of this!" a 53-year-old female protester in Paris told French news agency AFP.  "It is a political crisis disguised as a health crisis."

The French Interior Ministry said nearly 215,000 people took part in the demonstrations nationwide, short of the 250,000 expected. In Paris alone, some 1,600 police officers were tasked with responding to three separate marches. 

As you can see below there are no search results when you search for France in Google News. 

Dr Bryan Ardis - Hospital Protocol Is What Is Murdering "Covid" Flu Patients

Worldwide Pro Choice Protests Against Vaccine Mandates & Passes

150,000+ people across France protested against a bill requiring everyone to have a special virus pass to enter restaurants and mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for all health care workers. Police fired water cannons and tear gas on rowdy protesters in Paris.

Thousands of people demonstrated in Athens, Greece and other Greek cities over plans to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for all health workers. Hundreds of people marched in Cape Town, South Africa to protest against the COVID-19 vaccines. They say they want their constitutional right to freedom of association respected. They have decried, what they say is information censorship against voices that do not accept the dominant narrative on COVID-19 and vaccines. "We say 'No to the Green Pass' because it creates A series citizens and B series citizens. Citizens who have rights and citizens who have no rights. This is against the Italian Constitution. It is a liberticidal and undemocratic measure," one protester argued in Italy. Biden’s motorcade is met with jeers and middle fingers at his visit to Allentown, PA Thousands of protesters took to streets in Sydney, Australia demanding an end to lockdown enforcement. Protesters violated Covid restrictions, chanting slogans of ‘freedom’ in an area that was declared a Covid hotspot. While anti-vaccination sentiments were at the forefront in Brisbane, Melbourne protests echoed with anti-lockdown slogans.Protest against Trinity Health vaccine mandate in Grand Rapids, Michigan Hundreds of hospital workers showed up at the state Capitol on Wednesday to protest two of the largest health care providers in Arizona mandating getting vaccinated.California’s Capitol was buzzing Monday with people protesting a bill that would make it harder to get a medical exemption for vaccinating their children. Every year, tens of thousands of Americans get sick from diseases that could be prevented by vaccines – some people are hospitalized, some even die. Immunization is our best protection against these diseases.

Free Speech Rights Are Being Tested

YouTube’s removal of coronavirus-related video is an ‘egregious censorship effort’

Free speech advocates are furious that YouTube removed a viral video of two California doctors questioning the threat level of the coronavirus.

The doctors, Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi, have made the argument that the mortality rate of the coronavirus is similar to the flu and, therefore, shelter-in-place orders are overblown. The doctors also called for businesses to reopen but were hit with criticism and attempts to debunk their claims.

If this video does not work you can watch it here.

YouTube's CEO Susan Wojcichi @SusanWojcicki, said "anything that is medically unsubstantiated, so people saying, like, ‘Take Vitamin C… take turmeric, those cure you,’ those are examples of things that would be a violation of our policy. Anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy,” Wojcicki told CNN.

Many people including myself have experienced censorship posting articles and in discussion within local Facebook groups.  Radical liberals are often asking for opposing views and discussion to be removed.  Their justification is you are killing people by posting misinformation.  Misinformation is usually just an opposing view that is not popular.

The dangerous liberal ideas for censorship in the United States

Almost everywhere you turn today, politicians are telling the public to “get used to the new normal” after the pandemic. For some people, this means public health precautions from social distancing to banning handshakes. Others have quickly added long standing dreams for everything from the guaranteed basic income advocated by Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, which was also recently raised by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to mailed voting elections advocated by many Democrats. The video accumulated over 5.4 million views before it was removed from YouTube.

The most chilling suggestion, however, comes from the politicians and academics who have called for the censorship of social media and the internet. The only thing spreading faster than the coronavirus has been censorship and the loud calls for more restrictions on free speech. The Atlantic recently published an article by Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith and University of Arizona law professor Andrew Keane Woods calling for Chinese style censorship of the internet.

The justification for that is the danger of “fake news” about coronavirus risks and cures. Yet this is only the latest rationalization for rolling back free speech rights. For years, Democratic leaders in Congress called for censorship of “fake news” on social media sites. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have all engaged in increasing levels of censorship and have a well known reputation for targeting conservative speech.

Hillary Clinton has demanded that political speech be regulated to avoid the “manipulation of information” and stated that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg “should pay a price for what he is doing to our democracy” by refusing to remove any opposition postings. In Europe, free speech rights are in a free fall, and countries such as France and Germany are imposing legal penalties designed to censor speech across the world.

Many of us in the free speech community have warned about the growing insatiable appetite for censorship in the West. Yet we have been losing the fight, and free speech opponents are now capitalizing on the opportunity presented by the pandemic. Representative Adam Schiff sent a message to the executives of Google, Twitter, and YouTube demanding censorship of anything deemed “misinformation” and “false information.”

Yet YouTube did exactly that a few days earlier by removing two videos of California doctors who called for the easing of state lockdown orders. The doctors argued that the coronavirus is not as dangerous as suggested and that some deaths associated with the pandemic are not accurate. There is ample reason to contest their views but, instead, YouTube banned the two videos to keep others from reaching their own conclusions.

Facebook will not only remove posts it considers misinformation about the coronavirus but will issue warnings to those who “like” such postings. Facebook said that it wants to protect people from dangerous remedies and false data. Ironically, the World Health Organization praised Sweden for its rejection of the very restrictions criticized by the two doctors. The group declared that Sweden is a “model” country despite its rejection of lockdown measures being protested in the United States.

China has been particularly eager not to “waste” the opportunity of this crisis. Chinese professor Xu Zhangrun is one of many citizens arrested after publishing criticism of Xi Jinping on his handling of the crisis. The government deemed such criticism to be fake news causing panic. It has censored accounts of its concealing the source of the original outbreak, including censorship on popular Chinese apps such as WeChat.

Coronavirus Survivors Want Answers, and China Is Silencing (NY Times)