Just a few hours after the Education Ministry announced that schools are scheduled to open on September 7 and masks will be mandatory for students and personnel, new groups created on Facebook are calling on Greek parents to not send their children to school with a mask.
Several posts on one specific group open to public claim that wearing masks is dangerous. They do not bother to cite any scientific data to support their argument because there are not any.
“No child will go to school wearing a mask this year,” they urge insecure parents who have jointed the group.
Within two days after it was launched, the group of dangerous “couch revolutionaries” from the well-known “conspiracy theorists” front, counts over 14,000 members.
Among the group members there are reportedly two approaches on the mask issue:
There are those who claim that their child will go to school without a mask and those who claim that they will not send their child to school this year.
Of course, had these “parents” -who react to mandatory mask in schools – tiny brain cells they should have demanded from the Ministry: Covid-tests and masks free of charge, a thorough government plan in case of an infection in a class or school, frequent cleaning and disinfection, classes with fewer than 25 pupils and even – why not? – homeschooling ( an education concept unknown to Greeks). They could also demand state financial support to the children of families suffering from the crisis caused by the pandemic.
But they don’t have a bit of a rational brain and they don’t demand anything substantial.
They just let themselves be manipulated by imported flat-earthers and antivaxx populists who take advantage of people’s insecurity and ignorance with the aim to promote their own goal: a brainless society eager to adopt each fairy tale they serve.
Beginning of the month, Minister of Civil Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, ordered investigation against “coronavirus conspiracy theories” posted on Greek internet. Nothing has been reported so far on the investigation progress.
According to Alpha TV on Thursday evening, authorities are preparing a case file against the group on Facebook, while electronic crime authorities have launched procedures to identify the creators of the group.
What is interesting is the “mask-deniers” group has created a thumbnail kind of logo with the slogan “I can’t breathe” – the main slogan used the US movement Black Lives Matter after the brutal murder of George Floyd by policemen in Minneapolis last May.
This is one of the open groups of the anti-mask movement on social media. There are also others that are closed to public view.
stop punishing homeschoolers and let the corrupt and worthless government schools empty out and shut down from lack of ‘customers’!
I dont think all the state schools are corrupt and worthless,thats an insult to hard working teachers who probably take a high amount of stress every day whilst educating other peoples children without very much thanks from parents.Home schooling is not the best thing for every child,it doesnt suit every child so options must be available,the majority of children are very happy to go off to school everyday.
As a teacher, this is an international crisis that is causing a rift between public schools and everyone else. Teachers (especially in North America) are NOT valued and we are generally underpaid. As schools plan to reopen here in Toronto, the provincial government will not put a safe return in place because, even though we are in a pandemic and approaching a second wave, conservative governments MUST save money and make cuts. It is also an excuse to allow charter schools to become more prominent.
If you want to homeschool, so be it. But most parents are expected to go to work themselves – whether that is “bricks and mortar” or virtual. Balancing homeschooling with work and other life demands is challenging. As a public school teacher, I’m leery of homeschool because I don’t know what is taught (anyone remember Golden Dawn wanting to teach history?). As a public school teacher, I know that you can take your child OUT of any topic that you don’t want them to know about (usually sex ed).
The appropriation of the black lives matter slogan is disgusting in and of itself. And as to the anti-vaxx things being imported, I think not. I have heard enough craziness when I’ve been with relatives in Greece to make my hair curlier than it is. I’m surprised at this resistance because of the rampant hypochondrianism that I know exists (antibiotics in fridges, anyone? A pill for whatever ails you – real or imagined?).
Wearing a mask is NOT taking away YOUR personal freedom, but NOT wearing a mask is taking away mine. Asymptomatic cases have now been reduced to about 25% of the population. But they are the most dangerous. Recent medical reports state that children are asymptomatic most of the time, but can tolerate and carry higher levels of the coronavirus. Instead of thinking beyond ourselves to “the greater good”, we have focussed on this piece of fabric. Not wearing the fabric will keep us all inside again. It dismays me to see that this is a universal theme.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. All these conspiracy theorists are endangering our society and instead of helping prevent the spread of the virus they’d rather create disrespectful and tacky logos spewing out opinions with no scientific evidence to back them up, influencing the ill-informed people.