Let my children take off their masks, the science says it is safe

“When I’m three, I have to wear a mask.”

This is what my two-year-old son Jack said in a sad voice when we were talking about his upcoming birthday. It made my heart sink.

Jack knows who Mayor Hancock is: His preschool teachers showed the class a picture of the Denver mayor and appealed to his authority when some of the tiny students struggled to keep their faces covered at school.

Jack is too young to understand this, but Mayor Hancock’s authority has some limit. Like other public servants, he has had to make very difficult decisions during the COVID pandemic. But all along, we trusted our leaders to roll back pandemic-related restrictions as we learned more about the COVID-19 virus and as we progressed in our efforts to contain it.