covid-19 rising: doctors disagree on return of mask mandates 

when it comes to our health, canada is decidedly heading into a tough winter. covid-19 hospitalizations are rising , booster uptake is lagging , and the new omicron subvariants are spreading. this fall has the highest number of covid-related hospitalizations than any previous fall in the pandemic, almost four times more than in 2020 and double that of last october, cbc news reports .  

the canadian association of emergency physicians has also warned the combination of covid-19 and influenza illnesses will be problematic for the province’s overburdened health-care system through the winter. 

now, doctors are disagreeing over the value of reintroducing masking mandates to help curb the spread of infection, according to ctv news .

in alberta, premier danielle smith said in a statement she will not allow any masking mandates of children in schools. this follows a court ruling on the government’s decision to drop and block these mandates, the calgary herald reports . 

it’s complicated. masking comes with social and developmental detriments 

the masking debate continues to rage on, with cultural norms playing a key role in the acceptance of masking.

but research findings are conflicting when it comes to the question of childhood development. while research indicates wearing masks does not impair gas exchange or make it more difficult to exhale carbon dioxide and inhale oxygen at rest or mild exercise, experts are divided on the socio-emotional development of children in heavily-masked environments. 

“kids need to train up their face recognition,” dr. manfred spitzer, a psychiatrist and cognitive neuroscientist in germany, told npr . “babies were never designed just to see the upper half of the face and to infer the lower half. even adults have a hard time doing this.” he is most concerned with masking interfering with non-verbal communication and bonding for young kids.

however, not all research indicates that mask wearing will cause dire consequences for children. one study, published in plos one , found participants’ (81 children, aged 7 to 13) ability to identify others’ emotions when wearing masks was approximately the same as for sunglasses — another widely-used device that has attracted little of the concern over children’s development. although neither of the results were as good as for completely unobscured faces, they were still above chance. 

how necessary is the entire face for communication? 

psychology researchers in israel and italy collaborated in a 2021 study, published in frontiers in psychology , that looked at how we rely on faces for communicating. the authors note that faces are the most important non-verbal method of transmitting and decodiing information about ourselves and others, so masking creates a hurdle to normal communication.

other research has focused on the eyes as the key area for developing compassion and, in some cases, profound intimacy . while western cultures may never develop the ability to communicate based on the eyes alone, it is worth noting we are able to develop different methods of understanding emotion.