Unmasking school pupils in New York already feels like yesterday’s news | Emma Brockes

With Ukraine coverage displacing Covid, there's a strong feeling that the caravan of history has abruptly moved on

My children can't remember a time when they didn't go to school in masks. The first lockdown, in March 2020, happened halfway through kindergarten, and as far as they're concerned they've never seen their teachers' faces unmasked, or enjoyed an unmuffled exchange with them. They are masked in the playground and the gym and at their after-school programme, for up to nine hours at a stretch. They are so accustomed to masks at this point that they ask to wear them when it isn't required.

All of this is about to change, when New York, which still has some of the strictest Covid regulations in the US, prepares to relax its school mask mandate next week. Barring an unforeseen spike", Eric Adams, the city's mayor, announced that, on Monday 7 March, he was willing to allow New York's one million public schoolchildren to return to unmasked learning. Elsewhere, mask use is visibly waning, even among the vulnerable elderly. It was noted on Tuesday night that, prior to President Biden's State of the Union address, the 79-year-old moved through the chamber unmasked, dispensing hugs.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist