As the COVID pandemic drones on, parents are noticing a change in the way the American Academy of Pediatrics offers advice on its webpages, first in that some pages seem to be disappearing, while the advice itself is either changed or written in such a way as to downplay certain conditions or to obscure statistics when it comes to reporting on children and COVID.

Twitter user Erich Hartmann posted that he’d noticed the AAP was “actively ‘deleting’ entire sections from their website” when they referenced early childhood development and the importance of facial cues for learning.

Next, Ricochet user Bethany Mandel pointed out on Conservative Conversations + Podcasts that the AAP appeared to be pulling other shenanigans, such as tweeting posts insisting that “masks do not compromise children’s breathing” and “being around adults wearing masks doesn’t delay babies’ speech or language development.”

The only problem is, as Mandel adeptly points out, there are no studies proving this; in fact, the existing studies show that facial expression is an important part of children’s mental health and literacy and language development.

“The AAP would like you to believe that we need studies to confirm what we all know: that babies’ development is tied to seeing and responding to faces,” Mandel said. “In the absence of these studies, babies and toddlers should spend yet another year with masked caregivers, and that the latter can be masked yet another year.”

SOURCES:

Twitter Erich Hartmann August 18, 2021