New York’s Child-Masking Madness

Mayor Eric Adams can and should disregard the erroneous advice of his health team.

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New York mayor Eric Adams speaks during a news conference at City Hall in New York City, January 24, 2022.

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

One of the more curious storylines playing out in the early days of Eric Adams’s tenure as mayor of New York City is his stance on masking preschoolers. Adams, who projects a tough-guy, no-nonsense persona, ready to make the tough decisions, has decided to maintain the requirement that schoolchildren under the age of five wear masks even though the science is clear that they face little to no Covid risk and that, as I discuss below, masking that age group comes with a risk of significant harm.

Adams lifted the mask mandate for K–12 schoolchildren in early March and promised he would lift the mandate for preschoolers, ages two to four, on April 4. Then, citing a “slight uptick” in cases, he backtracked.

Joel Zinberg

About the Author

Joel Zinberg

Joel Zinberg is a director of the Paragon Health Institute’s Public Health and American Well-Being Initiative. He served as senior economist and general counsel at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, 2017–19.

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