On Hugh Hewitt's radio program earlier this month, pandemic spokesman Dr. Anthony Fauci agreed with the recommendation because of the case uptick in the virus's Delta variant. He called it "the reasonable thing to do."
Dr. Rosemary Stein of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, however, disagrees.
"I can't see what he is saying, what Dr. Fauci is relating to what we're seeing in our communities," the pediatrician responds. "Scare tactics are really not helpful for families and especially not helpful for children."
Dr. Stein is not detecting an increase in children being hospitalized for COVID-19 and says the Academy's recommendation is not helpful in part because a two-year-old "does not know how to use a mask."
"They drool all over it; they're still teething to some extent. It's really unhelpful," she continues.
She maintains that the best option is to let parents decide whether to mask their children when sending them back to school.
Meanwhile, parental outrage continues to build as school districts throughout the country issue mask mandates for all students and staff.
The Buncombe County School Board in Asheville, North Carolina, for example, says its mask mandate follows the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' guidelines.
Tami Fitzgerald of the North Carolina Family Values Coalition says masking policies vary throughout The Tar Heel State.
"The big cities—Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro—they've all made decisions to mandate masks," Fitzgerald accounts. "A lot of the rural counties have decided to allow parents the choice."
From what she has observed, parents are fed up with mask mandates and the inconsistency of government, which has caused mass confusion.
"This has caused an exodus from public schools," Fitzgerald continues. "The private schools in my area of the state, Raleigh, are exploding with population because parents do not want to subject their kids to wearing masks again."
She says many parents in districts instituting mask mandates are perturbed because the decisions were made without them being given the opportunity to weigh in.
