Your child wants to play catcher on the softball team, and the coach says a mask is required. Your daughter wants to be on the alpine ski team, and a helmet is required. Do you argue? Do you insist on double blind, placebo control research to confirm the wisdom of these measures?

If your son or daughter says the catcher’s mask might worsen their acne do you concede that they probably don’t really need it?

The answers to all these questions are “no.”

We don’t research to replace our common sense notion that helmets and masks don’t hurt and might protect from injury. Indeed, as parents our first instinct is to go with whatever might make our children safer.

So, why are face masks different? Common sense says they might help and the downsides are frankly trivial.

Uncomfortable? Might cause a little acne? Come on, let’s be sensible here.

Some 20% of new COVID cases are among children and pediatric hospitalizations are off the chart. And unlike that catcher’s mask, your child’s mask might protect someone else, too.

What more do we need to know?

Dr. Steve Bien, Farmington