A father has mounted a one-man battle against masks in schools – sending his children in without them on Tuesday and encouraging fellow parents to sign an ‘Unmask the Kids’ poster at the school gate on Wednesday.
Daniele Baraggioli is fed up with what he says are the double standards around COVID-19 health measures that see children having to mask up all day in school while unmasked crowds mingled closely at the counting hall, during election rallies last weekend and in Paceville nightclubs.
His crusade at the gates of San Ġwann primary school on Wednesday morning also involved handing out surgical masks – to demonstrate that the type of masks many children are wearing do not even meet public health guidelines.
“At least, if they have to wear masks, they should be the proper ones,” he insisted. Baraggioli took his children to school in surgical masks on Wednesday, pledging to remove these if he saw a single child without a “proper” mask.
On Tuesday, his children were provided with masks by the school, which said it was supporting his cause.
Baraggioli has purchased 250 of what he claims are the right masks “if they really want to be safe”, and on Wednesday morning, he delivered them to the school, where staff at the door handed them out to the pupils.
He said teachers and staff also wore them.
Baraggioli had warned that if these surgical masks were not used, he would have had no choice but to report the school to the health authorities for failing to abide by guidelines.
Citing these, copies of which were also distributed to parents, the father insisted the surgical masks also had to be replaced every four hours to remain effective against COVID-19.
Guidelines issued by health authorities state that non-medical face masks, while preventing viral particles from potentially being spread by mask wearers, do not protect them from being droplets spread by another person, who is positive with COVID-19.
Parents were invited to sign a poster with the slogan Unmask the Kids, which the Italian man hung up at the school gates and later personally delivered to the health ministry later on Wednesday.
Baraggioli’s point is that if there is an “emergency” in the country, then this applied to everyone, and everyone needed to follow the rules.
“If the community feels it is a risk, then it is a risk for everyone,” he said. “I have no problems if masks are removed after Easter, but Paceville clubs should close until then too,”
He questioned the medical reasoning behind keeping clubs open, while children had to maintain social distance and wear masks.
The father complained that they had “lived in a sanatorium” throughout the winter, as windows were left open to increase ventilation.
At the moment, schoolchildren must wear face masks all day and can only remove them during physical activity and while eating. This means that they are worn on the school van, in class throughout lessons and even during school breaks.
Despite the recent easing of measures, the restrictions in schools remain unchanged, but under the current road map, masks should stop being mandatory after the Easter holidays.
In his first address as prime minister, Robert Abela promised to lift all COVID-19 measures, but did not say when this would happen.