“You may personally think this ad is BS or whatever,” tweeted Tim Miller to his left-leaning followers about the N2 America spot embedded below. “But as a political matter, giving your opponents the ability to run an ad like this is a big self-own. And clock is ticking on fixing it.”

This is the message that’s going to turn a good midterm cycle for Republicans into a great one:

Kids are locked out of school, locked out of learning, locked out of their childhood.

Celebrities and media personalities and hypocritical politicians are partying like it’s 2019.

That should disgust everyone. pic.twitter.com/jcZnx1FfT5

— N2 America (@N2_America) February 3, 2022

The secret sauce is that it focuses on fairness. It’s one thing to burden kids with COVID restrictions when adults are burdened too. It’s another thing entirely to burden them when adults are cutting loose.

The elected officials who want to mask children for 50 hours a week love to post how they’re living their best mask-free life. https://t.co/gu0vEECWjP

— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) February 4, 2022

Scan the liberal replies to the N2 America ad on Twitter and you’ll find a sea of indignant “NOW DO SCHOOL SHOOTING DRILLS” retorts.

So, uh, I don’t think they’re going to take Miller’s advice in time to save the Democrats.

In fact, I all but guarantee that they won’t. The latest from Denver:

Please note, the @CityofDenver's other public health order requiring masks in schools and childcare facilities, WILL remain in place for the time being. It’s important to keep our schools open and our children in class and do so safely.

— Michael B. Hancock (@MayorHancock) January 31, 2022

It’s simple if you don’t want your student to wear a mask in school,
KEEP THEM AT HOME. 💁🏾‍♂️

— Denver School Board Vice President – Tay Anderson (@DirectorTay) February 2, 2022

And the latest from MSNBC:

“With the omicron variant, kids are either going to get the vaccine or they're likely to get a serious condition of omicron,” Dr. Emanuel says. https://t.co/neKBmMFZjN

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 4, 2022

Unvaccinated kids are “likely” to get a “serious condition” if they catch Omicron? God only knows where Ezekiel Emanuel got that talking point but it certainly wasn’t from known COVID data.

Michael Bang Petersen, an advisor to the Danish government on COVID policy, has a grim look at the post-Omicron landscape today in an op-ed titled “The End of the Pandemic May Tear Us Apart.” Previously, Petersen writes, dissension on COVID restrictions mostly came from opponents who resented their implementation. But as the world stands on the threshold of endemic COVID, without any more major disruptive waves, that dynamic might reverse. Instead of the anti-restrictionists chafing at the rules, the restrictionists will chafe at seeing the rules lifted.

Until recently, the people losing the most trust have been those who felt that their governments’ responses were too heavy-handed. However, according to our data, the Omicron wave has also chipped away at the trust of those who have been supportive of their government’s approach up until now. Lifting restrictions while cases are soaring can seem like betrayal after two years of seeking to “flatten the curve.”…

For two years people have debated the value of masks, vaccine passports and more, to the point that they are no longer opinions but identities. And when opinions become identities, they warp our understanding and make it harder to change one’s mind as the situation changes. The truth is that we are all biased. For example, research shows that in the United States, Republicans tend to overrate the risks of getting vaccinated, and Democrats tend to overrate the risks from the disease…

For people who have been highly vigilant about Covid-19, the end of the pandemic could end up feeling like defeat. At some point, it will be time to lift restrictions and lower the guards. The people they’ve been debating about masks or whether the crisis is improving will then be right. It won’t be because this position was always correct, but because the circumstances have changed.

That’s the only plausible explanation for why some would continue to insist on masking kids in February 2022. Omicron is receding; the evidence that children seldom suffer severe illness from COVID is stacked a mile high; practically every kid in America will soon be eligible for vaccination, to reassure anxious parents; and the only mask that’s highly effective against the new variant, the N95, is one which nobody expects children to reliably wear. There’s no compelling reason to force kids to take precautions in an era when precautions are being eased for adults.

Except for Petersen’s theory, that is, that the “forever maskers” can’t bring themselves to admit defeat in the great school-masking debate.

In lieu of an exit question, read this piece authored by four doctors (with contributions from 10 others) on why mask mandates are no longer necessary in schools now that vaccines are widely available. Quote: “Above all, we entreat policymakers to fully restore normal life and school for all children at the first opportunity. The school years are critical for cognitive, emotional and social development. It is time to recognize the myriad threats to children’s safety – beyond that of a single virus – and to appropriately balance these risks.”