Question

Masks were ineffective, school closures harmed children, and past outbreaks showed us what not to do in the future.

Answer 1

As declarative as this claim is, not all of it is false. There are studies that have been done proving the effectiveness of masks. Also there is the simple fact that maybe they were ineffective in some instances, especially because not everyone has access to the highest quality masks, however, it was the best defense we had at the time. The claim about school closures is true to some extent. Reports have been made regarding how students suffered mentally because of pandemic related school closures. Similarly, some parties were more effected than others which makes this statement accurate in some sense. Ultimately if another outbreak were to happen then we would know what not to do again, but that's true about a lot of circumstances. And at the end of the day, this looks to be one person's opinion, not a widely reported claim so we need to be mindful of that. 

Comments

Hey! This is an excellent fact check, specifically how you related other credible articles to back up your claims proved how researched you were on the topic. I would expand on your point that it was the best defense we had at the time and note how unprecedented the pandemic wasm especially for its length, and that at the time there were trusted officials and scientists in charge making these decisions. While looking back it's easy to note how some of them weren't as effective (school closures for example, not masks) it is better to have been over cautious than inflict more covid related deaths on young people. I also liked how you noted this is one person's opinion, and I would add to that saying that everyone had different experiences during covid that shaped their perspectives, which is important to note when reading what is presented as facts.

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This is a very thoughtful perspective it is very important to acknowledge that such claims can be severally harmful to many public health issues like during the pandemic but overall, this fact check was very well thought out.