Media top headlines July 20
In media news today, reporters hit President Biden for walking back sharp criticism of Facebook, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell made eyebrow-raising remarks about crime in Washington, D.C., and the Washington Post lightheartedly mocked Hunter Biden's art.
"The View" co-host Sara Haines on Tuesday rejected the resistance to recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics for children 3 years and older to wear masks when returning to school.
While discussing the new recommendations mere weeks before schools begin to reopen, the liberal host approved having such young children wear masks, telling her co-hosts that she would rather see her kid in a mask than on a ventilator.
"I think this is what we need to do. Science has shown itself and the pandemic has become that of the unvaccinated," Haines said. "97% of hospitalizations are unvaccinated people. 99.5% of deaths are unvaccinated people. Who can’t get a vaccine? Anyone under 12. And even those who are eligible between 12 and 17, we only have a 30% vaccination rate right there. And where do kids get together? Where do they congregate? Where does this Delta variant blow up? At schools. At camps. Any time you're getting these unvaccinated children in groups you’re going to see this potentially spread."
"I don’t love seeing my kid in a mask but if that's what we have to do, that’s what we have to do. It’s a ‘better safe than sorry,’ which we usually apply in every category involving kids," she added. "As a mom, try posting a picture online of your kid in a car seat. Get ready, because the strap's not in the right place, they're wearing the wrong outfit, the food they eat, the activities you engage in. They will come for you if you make a kid vulnerable."
"Here, our kids are all vulnerable. It's not our choice. This [virus] doesn’t care if we’re tired of the mask, put it on!" she said. "And it's funny because when I look at the mask, I'm like I’d much rather see my kid in a mask again for the school year than on a ventilator."
Haines' support for the recommendations, as well as the recommendations themselves, coincide with current CDC guidance on children wearing masks, considering vaccinations for the coronavirus aren't yet approved for those under age 12.
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Some medical experts, however, have criticized the push to require children to wear masks and to be vaccinated against the virus. Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Seigel suggested last week that, although there were benefits to fighting the spread of the virus by wearing a mask, the downsides for children wearing them, such as rashes, socialization problems and anxiety, might be going underreported.
Siegel's fellow Fox News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier suggested the benefits to wearing masks might no longer outweigh the risks of prolonged mask-wearing because of low community transmission levels of the virus.
Fox News' Cortney O'Brien contributed to this report.