The state of California has decided to end its mask mandate.  Well, that's not quite true.  For inscrutable reasons, California's children, the least likely to spread COVID or be seriously sickened by it, must still wear their masks.

This new mask policy will take place today (February 15, 2022).  There is no discernible reason for choosing this particular date.  There is no new science that favors ending mask mandates, but then there was never any real science that favored mask mandates in the first place.  Since the decision to force Californians to cover their faces was completely arbitrary, it seems fitting that a decision to free Californians from masks should also be completely arbitrary.  Were it not for the concomitant decision to keep children in masks while they attend school, most people would probably just breathe a sigh of relief with well deserved fresh air and get on with their lives.

Sadly, the state government has chosen to continue to muzzle children, in the most literal sense.  It was all right for Super Bowl fans to crowd into a stadium by the thousands without masks.  Nobody seemed to be concerned that the game was the ultimate super-spreader event.  Of course, Super Bowl fans shelled out incredible sums of money, for tickets and merchandise, not to mention all the trade they brought to local businesses and the many hotels they stayed at.

Children, meanwhile, don't even work and neither pay taxes nor vote.  I'm not really surprised that people throwing money around are allowed to enjoy themselves at a game, while children must suffer in masks while trying to get an education.

Image: Child in a mask at school by freepik.

Kids are fighting back, though.  So are their parents.  But the state is hanging tough, with a caveat.  California secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mark Ghaly says the state will look at vaccination rates among schoolchildren in two weeks and then decide whether or not masks have to stay.

He didn't explicitly state that vaccination rates would have to go up in order to get rid of masks, but his message was clear.  He claims to be concerned about low vaccination rates among children under 11 years old.  It's worth noting that Governor Gavin Newsom is also citing low vaccination rates among young children as a reason to make them continue wearing masks.

In other words, the message seems to be that if enough children are vaccinated, the masks can be removed.  So much for "my body, my choice," or in this case, "my child's body, my choice."  Parents are being faced with an agonizing decision: submit their children to an experimental vaccine or watch them struggle to breathe as they go to school.  It remains to be seen if this is an offer parents can't refuse.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of The Pardon, a story of forgiveness based on the thief on the cross in the Bible.