ABSTRACT
Just as positive cases of COVID-19 fell substantially in the USA, the delta variant posed challenges to public health efforts to mitigate the highly infectious and global SARS-CoV-2 virus. Of particular concern have been the impacts of this contagious variant on children under the age of 12, who were not eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine at the beginning of the fall 2021 academic year. Indeed, the rapid spread of the COVID-19 delta variant in the USA and beyond has caused a rapid surge in mortality, severe morbidity, and hospitalizations among children and youth. Further, rates of death and severe morbidity have been disproportionately high for Indigenous, Black, and Hispanic children, raising questions about the social forces that engender racial disparities in pediatric health outcomes. This chapter draws attention to the role of the state in contributing to the racialized impact of the delta variant on children and youth. Specifically, it uses a critical race framework to analyze the ways in which anti-mask policies exacerbate preexistent social inequalities and therefore contribute to racial disparities in transmission, severe disease, and death. Ultimately, the chapter argues that children’s lives are subsumed by the broader goals of the new racism, a eugenic force against which children and youth of color must contend to save their lives.
