'The dam is breaking': NYT's Michelle Goldberg's epiphany about mandatory school masking is firing up people on both sides of the argument

When we last covered the New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg, she was going to bat — hard — for Randi Weingarten by attempting to gaslight us into believing that Weingarten has been fighting for children all this time.

Safe & welcoming public schools are how we help all kids recover & thrive. That's why we worked so hard to re-open schools 4 in person learning & are fighting 4 the safeguards necessary to keep them open safely & the conditions educators & students need https://t.co/uBjPabj80G

— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) December 17, 2021

But now we expect that Michelle will be getting an angry letter from Weingarten pretty soon, if she hasn’t gotten one already:

https://t.co/QHH6S1rRJC pic.twitter.com/DDc79f5R53

— Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn) January 28, 2022

Wow. We must admit, we weren’t expecting to read something like that from someone like Michelle Goldberg.

On Monday, the Washington Post published an op-ed from three medical experts calling to end mask mandates in schools. The Atlantic joined in on Tuesday.

Today, it's NPR's turn and @michelleinbklyn in the New York Times.

The dam is breaking. https://t.co/WTZpL15DNS

— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) January 28, 2022

Judging by some of the responses to Goldberg, a lot of people weren’t expecting to read something like that from her:

Disappointing that you are using debunked interpretation mental health data. 👀https://t.co/Wmaezed9Hk

— L McD (@LMcD34785232) January 28, 2022

How about the masks come off when every child has had an opportunity to get fully vaccinated? Some of us have children under 5.

— 𝔻𝕣. ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕕 𝔸. ℕ𝕠𝕠𝕘𝕒 (@southisnorth) January 28, 2022

A disappointing & badly-timed column. You ignore kids under 5 who have no vaccine yet (they often have siblings in school), low vaccination rates of 5-12s, terrible school & hospital staff shortages thanks to Omicron, which derailed earlier calls to set mask “off-ramp.”

— Nina Bernstein (@NinaBernstein1) January 28, 2022

Why is wearing a mask “extreme risk aversion?” Just ridiculous

— Hayle George C Scott 🏳️‍🌈🌐 (@haylesatan) January 28, 2022

Also, a lot of “bait and switch” here. We some how “know” masking causes harm to children — but we haven’t figured out a metric for it. Immunocompromised people are “scared” (as opposed to “correctly anticipate”) that eliminating mask mandates will increase their risk…1/2

— Mark E. Herlihy (@MEHerlihy) January 28, 2022

2/2… Cloth masks aren’t really very effective, but requiring the use of more effective masks becomes, not a more effective mask regime (a good thing, surely), but a “stricter” regime (a somehow self-evidently “bad thing”)? Do we “really want that”?
The whole piece is a muddle.

— Mark E. Herlihy (@MEHerlihy) January 28, 2022

I think MichelleG should sub at a no mask school for a month. Every day. Go in, no masks teach school. Go on, we will all wait, until “the rates go down.” Go teach.

— PaintingForProgress (@OzarksTown) January 28, 2022

The nytimes seems to only employ writers who push a Koch line on Covid. https://t.co/pP3lKukE8E

— melissa “cancel student debt” byrne (@mcbyrne) January 28, 2022

When Goldberg is not doing rape apologia she spends her free time doing mass death apologia https://t.co/MCb37h5MGm

— Fixing Bread Prices (@getupgetfree) January 28, 2022

Yiiiikes. Goldberg definitely kicked a massive hornet’s nest with this.

And while we can certainly appreciate that Goldberg has stumbled onto the legitimately science-based argument, it sure would’ve been nice if she hadn’t taken so long to get here.

NY times admitting Ron DeSantis was right all along https://t.co/SdxnmdXx6T

— Ahmed Al Assliken (@assliken) January 28, 2022

Sorry, but this would have been a good piece to write last year.

Now all you have done is open the door for future masking.

Read between the lines. Literally every expert is now saying that cloth masks are worthless. This is what our kids have been wearing the entire time.

— NYC Angry Mom (@angrybklynmom) January 28, 2022

And they were telling us the entire time that the cloth masks were a critical safety measure with absolutely no real world evidence to back that up.

— Carrie Lukas (@carrielukas) January 28, 2022

So … why now? Why does Goldberg now feel comfortable openly questioning the value of school masking policies?

We’d like to think that maybe we’re in the early stages of watching liberals come to their scientific senses. But a far more likely explanation is that the origins of this aha-moment are essentially just political.

The only reason they are doing this is because they see what's coming electorally. It was never about science to these people. Now it is because of politics. https://t.co/b62ygPldo5

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 28, 2022

The only reason theyre doing this is because of the polling… how parents are fed up with their shit… they are not doing this because of the science

We knew masking kids was bullshit 6 months into this pandemic… these are the same ppl that called parents grandma killers https://t.co/HmDBJTst5v

— Ahmed Al Assliken (@assliken) January 28, 2022

Still, we’d be lying if we said that waking up to reality isn’t ultimately a good thing and necessary to reach the goal of getting back to some semblance of common sense.

Yes! In progressive areas, parents will have to push if they don't want masking in perpetuity, just as they had to push to get schools open. https://t.co/5VfTI8V6FX

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) January 28, 2022

On one hand, this is a yr too late & no, no more masks later. On other, look at the comments on this & know there is a segment of the country living in a science-free fantasyland, where a piece of cloth over a child's face is helping, to know it's a good thing NYT running this. https://t.co/5a2aL9sHrq

— Karol Markowicz (@karol) January 28, 2022

We can't even get these people to step one. It's like "masks don't work." "Well, some masks work." "Ok, the Batman mask your kid chews on doesn't work." "I'm sure it helps a little, better than nothing." Round and round.

— Karol Markowicz (@karol) January 28, 2022

I'm sure this was not an easy piece to write, but I'm glad Michelle had the courage to do so https://t.co/T5lbTUDMLx

— Tæghan (@Ghaneat) January 28, 2022

.@michelleinbklyn calls for end of mandatory masking in schools post-Omicron, citing @ElissaPerkins @ErinBromage and recent writing on limited mask efficacy + costs to kids.

Making this the indisputable “Now It Can Be Said” week. https://t.co/vPJuQvFhEV

— Karen Vaites (@karenvaites) January 28, 2022

We do appreciate that Michelle Goldberg said it. Not many liberals with large media platforms are willing to go out on that limb.