Whether you’ve been laughing or crying over those viral videos of adults angrily reacting to mask mandates, I’m here to tell you that your reaction is warranted. There is absolutely no reason why mask mandates shouldn’t be implemented, especially in our school district.

Anti-maskers argue that it’s their right to make their own risk-benefit decisions. But to fulfill their responsibility of protecting community members, governing bodies must keep people from harming other people and themselves, which can happen when one refuses to wear a mask. Drunk driving, for example, is illegal because even if one is willing to risk death, such a decision negligently risks their lives and those of others. By allowing people to hurt themselves and others, a government would fail to manage its duty.

An individual’s choice not to wear a mask affects his or her friends, family, coworkers, teachers, and, by extension, the rest of his or her community. Thus, the decision as to whether a person should wear a mask in a public space does not belong to that person but rather to the community and its elected officials. Furthermore, the choice of a community should be based on the opinions of experts, not on the com-plaints of a few misled individuals. For the past 16 months, experts have been saying, endlessly, that masks prevent the spread of COVID-19. The amount of evidence supporting the conclusion that face masks prevent the spread of CO-VID-19 is absolutely monumental. A recent example is a study in 2021 conducted on 340,000 adults by Jason Abaluck et. al, reinforces that masks are highly effective.

Then why are so many people still skeptical of something so simple as wearing a piece of cloth? Part of the answer lies in the perceived conflicting information from the government. In the early months of the pandemic, there was an absence of evidence with regard to the effectiveness of masks against the transmission of COVID-19. By April, however, there was enough to conclusively show that masks were effective, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention began recommending their usage. Somewhat understand-ably, many were caught off guard when this happened and many still retain this skepticism. But this confusion is unfounded. It is important to understand that the nature of the scientific method requires that the scientific consensus always be evolving as new findings come to light. Following the science can mean federal and local changing recommendations in the middle of a pandemic.

Early in August, Governor Murphy followed the science and signed Executive Order 251, mandating mask inside all school buildings. Princeton Public Schools has been keen to adhere to this mandate this school year, and rightfully so. We go to school in a fairly data-driven, science-believing town. It’s no surprise that our vaccination rate is almost 25 percentage points higher than the national average, according to a letter by Superintendent Dr. Carol L. Kelley in 2021. So, are mask mandates really still necessary in our district? The answer is yes. The Delta variant, the dominant strain of COVID-19 in America, is no joke. According to a 2021 study released by the CDC, the vaccine is now only 66 percent effective against the Delta variant, down from the 90 percent a couple months ago. Even though the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are still among unvaccinated individuals, mild breakthrough cases accelerate the spread of COVID-19. Also this year, in Nature Journal, Nidhi Subbraman shows that a vaccinated person with COVID-19 can spread the virus just as easily as an unvaccinated person. Not to mention, there is still a decent portion of our district’s student body that remains unvaccinated, including all of the elementary school students at Riverside, Littlebrook, John-son Park, and Community Park.

There are some hidden benefits to wearing masks in schools as well. Masks decrease the risk of other airborne illnesses, minimizing the amount of students who catch some other virus and have to spend days staying home and getting tested for COVID-19.As summer break comes to a close, schools nation-wide have been taking many different approaches to reopening. Some approaches have been safer and smarter than others, and it shows. According to a 2021 NBC report, tens of thousands of students in Mississippi, Texas, and Florida are going into quarantine soon attend-ing their first week of in-person school. With this, combined with teachers dying in hospitals, and schools closing within weeks of opening, it’s easy to see why many school districts are reimplementing mask mandates. Furthermore, mask mandates decrease the volatility of our schedules. The complicated, four-cohort, half-hybrid, half-remote schedule from last year will not suffice this year. Having our school district go through cycles of opening and closing due to students and teachers getting sick, like those in the Southeast, will be unacceptable.

Masks are a precaution with virtually no significant drawbacks. There is little evidence that mask-wearing by teachers and students impair learning or social skills. Yes, visual guidance is required for speech development in infants, but elementary school students already know their syllables. Research in 2008 from the Yale Child Study Center also showed that toddlers spend significantly more time staring at the eyes than the mouths of the people they are interacting with. Masks are not a major barrier to communication, and they are better than a black screen.

Truth be told, we are all tired of masks and hand sanitizer and the pandemic as a whole. But comfort is a far second to safety. We need to stay vigilant, and wearing masks is part of that.