
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Sommerville NJ, Jack Ciattarelli, Republican candidate for New Jersey Governor, released the following statement ahead of Phil Murphy’s announcement of a mask mandate for New Jersey’s public school students:
“Governor Phil Murphy has done it again. His decision to require masks for K-12 students is a bewildering reversal of his position of just a few weeks ago. Let me be clear, I oppose Governor Murphy’s mask mandate for students. The science is clear: nearly all children who contract COVID-19 are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and wearing masks for children is terrible for their social and emotional development. Bottom line, whether a child wears a mask should be decided by parents, not government. If someone wants to have their child wear a mask, they should feel free to do so, but it’s not something that should be forced on children, nor should their learning be inhibited in any way. Finally, this feels like the first step towards another Murphy lockdown, which is something our children, businesses, and taxpayers cannot afford or are willing to accept.”
Senator Michael Doherty blasted Governor Phil Murphy’s plan to issue a new mask, “Governor Murphy seems oblivious to the fact that children have a 99.97% survival rate for COVID-19 and few develop symptomatic let alone serious infections,” said Doherty (R-23). “Given the minimal risk, it’s clear the governor’s new mask mandate has little to do with public health and much to do with politics. Maybe if it wasn’t an election year, Governor Murphy would give parents the same consideration he’s giving to the teachers’ union.”
After saying earlier this summer that he would leave masking decisions for the upcoming school year to individual districts, Governor Murphy is expected to announce today that all K-12 students will be required to wear masks in the fall.
Doherty was among the legislators who participated in an independent hearing last month where medical researchers, school officials, and parents testified about the dangers of masking children and doing so unnecessarily.
“We believe policies on the masking of children should be made through the legislative process or by local school districts in consultation with parents,” added Doherty. “Unfortunately, Governor Murphy doesn’t want parents to have a say in whether kids must wear masks. That’s the undeniable message he’s sending by issuing yet another executive order that circumvents the scrutiny of public hearings and open debate.”
Assemblyman Brian Bergen said mandating masks in schools has more negatives than positives.
“What I am hearing is that mandating masks makes things more difficult for everyone,” said Bergen (R-Morris), a parent of two school-age children and the husband of a teacher.
“The governor’s new mandate and the CDC recommendations are looking at the issue from only one angle,” continued Bergen. “They are not considering the damage to our kid’s emotional wellbeing. We need to add that element, and when we do, the answer is no mandatory masking in schools. The long-term harm to kids from masking is psychologically enormous and disrupts learning.”
Experts have raised legitimate concerns that the risks of masking outweigh the potential benefits for children, because masking children can negatively impact communication, learning, emotional and social development.
Why is this a political issue. Most kids who contract this disease do well, but not all. Why risk it?
Kids can still carry and spread the disease to those more sensitive to it. Why risk it?
There are a lot of unknowns about the long term impact of getting this disease, even with a mild case now. Recent studies suggest linkages with medium to long term cognitive decline. Why risk it?
most accidents happen within 5 miles of your home, so why leave your house, why risk it ?
Parents should just say no.
This first casualty of politicizing of anything is “Truth”
Parents should decide what is best for their child/ren. Politics should not be a factor. Our kids have lost so much already.
All along he has been telling us the numbers don’t Lie, these are his numbers, how do we know they are the actual true numbers? We don’t. NJ had more over doses deaths last week than COVID deaths. don’t believe anything that comes out of his mouth.
This is very simple – deal in fact. Children are not dying from this and there is zero evidence that masks work.
Children have a survival rate of almost 100 %
This is factually about control. The psychological damage and the actual health damage from breathing in your own germs meant to be expelled is far worse. Parents need to make the decision for their children, not the person that killed 8000 of our seniors. Most per one million globally.
Fight back
Let parents decide what is best for their children
Government should not be in our homes
Parents rule
Mr. Ciatarelli’s words are very stirring. On most issues, parents should have the last word on their children’s welfare. But the virus, esp. the new variants that transmit easily, doesn’t care about whether the government or the parents make the call. It is looking for a home. Few children are fully vaccinated, and offering generalizations about how harmless the variants are is extremely irresponsible. Schools teach students safe behavior in all sorts of ways (cross at crosswalks, take precautions in science labs, don’t tackle your own QB in practice, etc.). Requiring students to mask up in class is a preventative that all responsible candidates should support.
We should have the option to do school from home, no politician or member of Board of education has the right to overpower my doctor. No Employer or any other individual can overpower a doctor not even a judge.
How sad this article is! More politicizing the virus.
Children are our future. Not protecting them is unconscionable. While thus far they seem to be relatively resilient against COVID 19, this does not speak to the variant nor future variants. For those that feel their liberties are being taken away, perhaps you should be able to drink and drive w. your children in the car. You have a pretty good rate of survival with that, too.
It’s pure common sense that a virus will find it’s home in the path of least resistance. Therefore, an unmasked person is providing the perfect pathway. Obviously you haven’t been with lots of children at one time. They are sneezing, often have runny noses and wiping it on their sleeves etc. This is typical behavior of a child. We should teach our children to protect themselves and to care enough about others to protect them, too.
Time to get back to normal
There was reporting a few weeks ago that the Murphy Administration fudged Covid numbers. They blamed it on a data processing error or some foolishness to that effect.
Maybe they’re using the same outdated data processing equipment for NJ Covid numbers that they use at NJ Motor Vehicles!
This is the most accurate comment on the situation : “most accidents happen within 5 miles of your home, so why leave your house, why risk it ?”
The world is full of risks, bullies, mean people, accidents, disease and many unpleasant things. But it is also full of fun, opportunity and freedom to grow and learn.
Time to get back to normal.