Pennacchio: Murphy’s Mask Rules for Kids Makes No Sense

Senator Plans to Chair Republican Panel on Forced Student Mask Mandate

Senator Joe Pennacchio said the Governor’s insistence that young children must continue to wear masks has riled up parents across the state, and they are letting legislators know how they feel.

“Like other District Offices, my staff has been deluged by calls from irate mothers and fathers who say they should be the ones making the decision whether their child wears a mask to school or to summer camp,” said Pennacchio (R-26). They say it’s not the Governor’s job to tell them what to do, and who could blame them.

“How cruel and insensitive is it to force children to wear masks outside in 90-degree weather? That does more harm than good,” Pennacchio said.

The parents “feel the need to be heard,” Pennacchio said, and noted the Senate Republicans intend to hold a public hearing on the mask mandate for children, and comments by Murphy that he expects masks will be the norm when school resumes in September for the 2021/2022 school year.

“The mask requirement is harming our kids. It’s voodoo science,” said Pennacchio. “Studies have shown since the beginning of the pandemic, that youngsters, especially, are not spreaders of COVID and there is no reason for them to be masked.

“They shouldn’t be subjected to masks in school or at summer camp, and younger kids certainly shouldn’t be wearing them in daycare facilities. There is nothing to support it,” Pennacchio continued.

The Senator cited a report published last month in the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal that stated: “Masks can be breeding grounds for infections from bacteria, mold and fungi, which is why the Centers for Disease Control recommends that a cloth mask should be washed with soap and water ‘whenever it gets dirty or at least daily.’ The CDC also advises washing your hands any time you take off the mask, and then washing your hands again after you put it back on. Pretending that children (or adults, for that matter) are dutifully taking all these precautions is absurd.”

The Hill published an opinion article stating that masks have “the potential to impede verbal and nonverbal communication and, by extension, language development, and social skills — among the very things we send children to school to learn.”