Bellone: Force All Children to Mask; Curran: Leave It to the School Districts

By Rupert Deedes

One of the final acts of Governor Andrew Cuomo was to declare "no New York State policy" on forced masking mandates - referring the question to the individual school districts. Now the Nassau and Suffolk County Executives have weighed-in:

Suffolk's Steve Bellone (D-Babylon) has now ordered that all school districts in Suffolk force children to wear face masks in school. But Nassau's Laura Curran (D-Baldwin) disagreed, and has deferred the question to each school district.

Over the next two weeks, School Boards will now be wrestling to formulate forced school face-mask policies. After 1 1/2 years of interrupted education, there is a consensus that children must be physically back in school.

Most medical experts conclude that face masks are ineffective in protecting people from inhaling the COVID-19 virus, but tests have shown that the masking of infected patients does reduce the virus transmission from those infected patients.

In the case of children, the virus is of little danger. Only 300 children under 18 have died from COVID over the past 20 months – mostly children already immune-compromised. Children are a-symptomatic - they rarely have severe cases of COVID - and are thus already of less of a danger to transmit the virus and infect others.

School Board meetings across America are being hit with mass protests, arrests and even fistfights, as parents fight to protect their children from being forcibly muzzled with face masks.

Scientific studies have shown that the masking of children increases the CO2 levels in children's blood, and produces eye infections and skin breakouts. Prolonged masking has also been tied to child psychological afflictions, including depression, suicide, and social alienation.

Mothers’ groups to stop forced masking have sprung-up across the north shore, and “Unmask the Children” signs pepper people’s lawns and line most major streets.

The issue of forced masking was the subject of heated exchanges at the Bethpage School Board meeting last Tuesday night, and at the Levittown School Board meeting Wednesday night. The north shore school districts will be meeting over the next two weeks.