English rock band Pink Floyd released an album in 1979 entitled The Wall which explored abandonment and isolation, symbolized by a wall. Forty years later, these themes resonate with many in our post COVID world.

The Chinese coronavirus, and more so, the response by governments, the media, and the medical establishment, have isolated so many people from normal commerce and social activities of life. We were told to stay home, sheltering in place. Then Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief architect of the wall, told us, after first telling us that masks were unnecessary, to wear one, then two masks, hiding our faces and emotions from friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers.

Congregating in churches and other family events like weddings, funerals, and graduations was forbidden, and in some countries like Canada, still is. The hubbub of a busy restaurant was replaced by a handful of tables spaced so far apart that there might have been walls between tables.

A wall then grew between masked and unmasked, vaccinated and unvaccinated, those who believed government and media propaganda and those who actually tried to follow the science. The wall is now crushing children, one of the most vulnerable population groups, without the knowledge or voice to push back.

It is left to the few brave and outspoken adults left to speak for the children saying, as Pink Floyd did 40 years ago, “Leave them kids alone!” What have the media, CDC, and self-anointed experts like Dr. Fauci done to the kids?

Start with masks. A few weeks ago, published in JAMA Pediatrics, was a study looking at carbon dioxide content in inhaled air, with or without a face mask, in healthy children. For the “follow the science” crowd, this was a randomized, prospective clinical trial, the gold standard for research.

Children wearing surgical masks inhaled carbon dioxide at levels, “Higher than what is already deemed unacceptable by the German Federal Environmental Office by a factor of 6.” Kids reached this level of hypercapnia, not after a day in school with a mask, but after only 3 minutes. They found “ample evidence for adverse effects of wearing such masks” and suggested that “decision-makers weigh the hard evidence produced by these experimental measurements accordingly, which suggest that children should not be forced to wear face masks.”

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This was not Trump tweeting about masks but, instead, a proper clinical trial published in a prominent peer-reviewed medical journal. Did anyone in America read this European study?

Dr. Fauci, if he read the study, came to his own conclusion. During one of his many daily cable news appearances, rivaling in number only those of jailbird Michael Avenatti, he commanded,

Unvaccinated children of the certain age, greater than two years old, should be wearing masks. No doubt about that. That’s the way to protect them from getting infected because if they do, they can then spread the infection to someone else.”

Despite the hypercapnia study results, children should remain masked until vaccinated, according to Dr. Fauci. How many of these children have already been exposed to COVID and now have antibodies, and immunity? Is anyone asking or even considering natural immunity, making this fear-mongering moot?

Can children even be vaccinated as Dr. Fauci demands? Actually no. The Pfizer vaccine is approved for 12 years and older, Moderna and Janssen 18 years and older.

He wants kids in school wearing masks, even toddlers not yet in school should be masked up. Good luck with that, especially on an airplane, where a two-year-old won’t keep their mask on, resulting in the entire family being unceremoniously being kicked off the plane.

Are children super spreaders, as Dr. Fauci implies? One study from Israel found, “Children and young people are less likely to catch COVID-19 and spread the virus to others compared to adults.” A second review in the Archives of Disease in Childhood concluded, “Children are not COVID-19 super spreaders: time to go back to school.” A third study in the French Alps found that “an infected child did not transmit the disease despite close interactions within schools.”

Apparently, Dr. Fauci today disagrees with Dr. Fauci from January 2020 when he said,

Even if there is some asymptomatic transmission, in all the history of respiratory borne viruses of any type, asymptomatic transmission has never been the driver of outbreaks. The driver of outbreaks is always a symptomatic person even if there is a rare asymptomatic person that might transmit. An epidemic is not driven by asymptomatic carriers.

Yet Dr. Fauci wants children masked up or vaccinated, both unnecessary by his own statements. Time to say, “Leave them kids alone!”

What about the vaccines? There is a reason they are not yet approved for use in children, even under emergency use authorization. Their safety is still not confirmed.

There are stories like this Michigan 13-year-old boy who died in his sleep three days after getting his second vaccine dose. Or the CDC confirming, a month ago, 226 cases of myocarditis after COVID vaccination in those 30 years old and under. Or Medpage Today recommending, “Based on the data to date, there’s no compelling case for [COVID vaccine] right now” for healthy kids.

Finally, the UK’s vaccine advisory group, after looking at the first 12 months of their COVID experience, found the risk of children becoming seriously ill from COVID is extremely low, prompting this recommendation, “Currently, under-18s are not routinely offered Covid vaccines, even if they have other underlying health conditions that put them at risk.”

Perhaps with time and data, the science will lead to child vaccinations for COVID. Or perhaps not. So why the rush from Dr. Fauci, fanned on by the Biden administration and the media.

Even the FDA in their emergency use authorization document requires, “The known and potential benefits of the product…to treat the identified serious or life-threatening disease or condition, must outweigh the known and potential risks of the product.”

Have we met that threshold? Is COVID in children serious or life-threatening enough to overcome the potential risks, known short term and unknown long term? Is the medical/government complex out over their skis on this one? Do they care?

Are children just collateral damage in the left’s quest for societal control? One only has to look at the robust abortion industry for an answer to that question. Are those pushing these draconian rules on children treating their own kids and grandkids this way? Or are those children in private schools, living and learning under a semblance of normality while the children of the masses suffer?

Hey government, leave them kids alone!

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. He is on sabbatical from social media.

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