There’s long been a prevailing meme that Republicans are such fans of fertilized eggs that they have to take away women’s rights over their own bodies to protect microscopic zygotes, but so unconcerned about actually living, independent children that they cheerfully withhold funding for extravagances like food and shelter. This meme persists because it’s true. And if anyone needed a reminder, here it comes: According to a poll published in Politico, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is now the favorite candidate of Republicans going into 2024. 

Based on how DeSantis’ support in this poll has grown five points in the last few months, it can only be assumed that this action, reported in CNN on Friday morning, will lock down a dozen new delegates. Because from now on, kids who are known to have been exposed to COVID-19 are free to go to school in Florida unless they’re personally showing symptoms. No more quarantine. Which is the viral aperitif for schools where both mask mandates and vaccine mandates are banned.

During the delta virus wave, Florida went from having the 27th highest death rate in the nation to cracking the top 10. A list that was once populated entirely by states unfortunate enough to be blasted by the pandemic in its opening weeks, when there were no vaccines and very little understanding about how best to treat COVID-19 patients, is now dominated by red states like Florida, where deliberate action on the part of Republican officials has consigned tens of thousands to their deaths.

No content to visit his public health disaster on adults, DeSantis has been particularly cruel in his ongoing fight to see that children face maximum threat. And to underscore the effectiveness of his actions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Friday that districts with masks mandates have seen much less growth of COVID-19 in children than districts without such protection. What DeSantis is doing isn’t some abstract argument about “freedom,” it’s a direct assault on human lives.

In a report released Friday, the CDC looked at 520 U.S. counties and compared rates of pediatric COVID-19 in counties where schools required masks against those where masks were optional. Cases were “sharply” higher in the mask-optional schools. At the end of the first two weeks of school, those schools where masks are not required averaged 34.85 cases of COVID-19 for every 100,000 children. Those counties where masks are required averaged 16.32. 

Having a mask mandate rather than just a policy that makes masks optional cut the rate of pediatric COVID-19 in half. 

Separately, the CDC looked at two of the largest school systems in Arizona, and found that counties were 3.5 times more likely to have a new COVID-19 outbreak—across the whole county, not just children—when the school year began without a mask mandate. Mask mandates didn’t just lower the rate of COVID-19 in kids, it greatly lowered kids’ roles as vectors of disease in the community.

And there’s more to this data than just the number of kids who become severely ill. Outbreaks of disease were much more likely to shut down schools in areas without a mask mandate. That means students without mask mandates are spending more time outside the classroom and failing to progress their education as well as those in districts where there is a mandate. It also means that parents are being forced to stay home, or spend money to find some form of alternative care, for children who are not in school.

Failure to impose mask mandates means:

More COVID-19 in schools and more sick children.
More COVID-19 in communities and more sick parents and relatives.
More school closures and days away from the classroom.
More economic hardship for parents and reduced incomes.

That’s what Ron DeSantis and other Republican governors who are pushing back against the recommendations of health care professionals are delivering to their states—more illness, declining education, and economic hardship.

And on that meme about how Republicans treat fertilized eggs versus breathing children …