I will add links to studies and some articles that further link to multiple studies below.
Btw, it is completely illogical to frame the question as a choice between wearing masks and getting Covid.
They get Covid anyway. 30 kids in the same room will pass the germs around, mask or no mask. Not to mention that cloth masks are mostly worthless against Omicron and that young kids take them off and constantly touch them and cover them with dirt, toxins and bacteria from their hands, which then have direct access to their lungs.
Most European countries have never required masking of young children and many have not required it at schools in any level. US is very much an outlier among countries with serious scientific base in masking 5 year olds.
The masks are stunting their development and causing their first year of school to be an utterly miserable experience, not to save them from Covid (which presents less risk to young kids than flu), but actually for no good reason other than maybe to placate teacher unions.
WHO and European equivalent of CDC recommend against masks for small children:
- https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/...
- https://www.who.int/news-room/...
Most countries other than the US do not mask young children:
https://news.yahoo.com/true-co...
Studies showing that masking students has zero or almost zero benefit:
- CDC's own study showing masking students (as opposed to just teachers) has no measurable benefit: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volum...?
- https://www.acpjournals.org/do...
- Teachers in Sweden with no mask requirement have average risk of catching covid compared to other professions: https://inproportion2.talkigy....
- No correlation between mask mandates and cases in schools: https://www.medrxiv.org/conten...
Studies and articles showing masking is harmful in several different ways for kids:
- https://www.researchsquare.com...
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go...
- https://www.hhs.gov/about/news...
- https://japantoday.com/categor...
- https://www.theatlantic.com/id...
- https://www.theatlantic.com/id...