Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called on state governments to rescind mask mandates for school children as well as a pivot from an emergency pandemic footing to accept that COVID-19 is here to stay.
“Across the country, bureaucrats are still forcing young children to wear masks to participate in society when neither kids nor vaccinated adults are remotely likely to get gravely ill,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on Wednesday. “What exactly are we doing here? Where are the goalposts? What is the end game?”
SCHOOL MASK WARS REACH BOILING POINT AS DISTRICTS THREATEN SUSPENSIONS
Some state governments, such as California and Illinois, both headed by Democratic governors, mandate masks in schools at the state level. Other states, such as Michigan and Indiana, leave that decision up to individual school districts, creating a patchwork of policies that have angered parents who argue masks stunt their children’s education.
Authoritative bodies have discouraged making young children wear masks. Although mandates are supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization maintains that “children aged 5 years and under should not be required to wear masks.”
McConnell also repeated calls from epidemiologists across the political spectrum, as well as fellow politicians, to “wind down” the state of emergency.
“The virus appears to be heading endemic,” McConnell said. “It’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.”
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He faulted Democrats with coalescing around a pandemic stance that favors stringent limits on what unvaccinated people can do in a move to obstruct the spread of the omicron variant, which has been shown to infect vaccinated and boosted people. McConnell, a survivor of childhood polio, is a strong proponent of vaccinations, unlike some members of his party. Still, he is a staunch opponent of vaccine mandates and “passes” that show vaccination status to gain entry in many restaurants and other businesses.
“Disturbingly, whether or not we should trust the science and reclaim normalcy is somehow becoming a partisan question,” he said. “Millions of Democrats have decided that organizing their lives around COVID is core to their identity as progressives.”
