Newsweek (12/4) reported, “The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued updated guidance, encouraging children and teens to wear face masks when participating in most youth sports.” The AAP wrote, “Cloth face coverings have been shown to decrease transmission rates of SARS-CoV-2; therefore the AAP encourages that athletes wear them at all times for group training, competition, and on the sidelines.”
The New York Times (12/4) reported the AAP “made exceptions only while swimming and diving, since it’s harder to breathe through wet masks; during gymnastics and cheerleading, where masks could get caught or obstruct vision; and during wrestling contact, where they could be a choking hazard.” Dr. Susannah Briskin, an associate professor of pediatric sports medicine at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, who is on the executive committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics’ council on sports medicine and fitness, and was co-author on the new guidance, “said that in states that have mandated masks for all sports, ‘athletes tolerated the change very well – most people take a couple of practices to find a mask they can work out in.’”
FURTHER READING