Go out on a cold day and you can see the effect for yourself. Should be unsurprising to anyone who has ever worn a scarf or balaclava in the winter.

This should be a surprise to approximately nobody with kids. Or anyone else really.

Special snowflakes no doubt..

Yes, some of the masks the small kids were wearing here were adorable. And you can teach the kids they are doing it to keep grandma safe - as I mentioned it is also an opportunity for a lesson in empathy for others. Sadly judging by the parents, and society in general, I suspect many kids never get any of those at all.

These are reasonable questions. I obviously can't speak to your jurisdiction or what guidance, if any, they may have followed. I can only speak to the importance of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Well, it was a pandemic so you know it's gonna suck by default. For the actual actuarial value of the lives lost vs the hit to the economy, no it probably was not worth it. Those who are more attached to the old folks in their life might use different metrics.

That kids rarely get seriously ill from COVID is not the same as kids don't get and transmit COVID. Kids rarely get seriously ill from flu either but they transmit it just fine. On the contrary I'd require studies to show C19 is somehow different from other pathogens, particularly other coronaviruses, in this regard.

Of course we already knew long before COVID that schools and daycares are giant petri dishes and probably one of the most significant transmission vectors of pathogens in society in general. Obviously if you want to shut down those huge vectors you would just shut down schools and daycares, and done. I suspect you would not have liked that approach either, so the question then becomes what, if any, steps can you take to try and mitigate that transmission where complete closure is otherwise undesirable. Maybe the answer is you can't. You certainly won't if you don't even try. Masks, ventilation, and lots of disinfectant is pretty standard stuff in our modern understanding of not spreading shit, and if hurt fee fees are the biggest downside to trying (and I'm still not quite sure if it is the toddlers or the adults with the most hurt fee fees), I'm still not seeing the problem.

Really we are talking about transmission vectors.

Yes, I agree they should not be anywhere near old people to begin with. Not surprising people who fail at that fail at masks too though.

Some people might even prefer the little darlings cough on grandma. Speed up the old inheritance.

Nobody said it couldn't. One day the grid will work that way. That day is not today, but I'm glad there are no caveats and it will be a trivial thing to do.

Teaching them to care about others is probably more uncomfortable and unnatural for you than them. They are young, they can still learn.

Masks are to protect other people, not yourself. You are allowed to not care about anyone else, but you are not fooling anyone.

That's problematic, because it is also the most important thing.

To a point.

https://storelectric.com/net-z... (these people are selling something but their facts are valid)

Net zero by 2050 is a pipe dream everywhere.

Wait till you hear about Facebook and X.