Letter to Hon. Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York - Garbarino Leads New York Republicans in Letter Urging Hochul To End The Child Mask Mandate

Letter

Dear Governor Hochul:

In light of the announcements made by the Governors of New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware, we
write today to urge you to immediately rescind the onerous and unconstitutional mask mandate in
New York State's schools. We have heard from countless families throughout our districts, expressing their concerns with the mandate, and how it has negatively impacted their child's experience in the classroom. The time is now to put an end to this unlawful mandate and to allow our
children to get back to being just that, children.

As you are aware, last month, you extended an emergency regulation that requires all public and
private schools in New York State to continue forcing their staff, faculty, and students to wear masks
whenever an individual is inside a school building. To make matters worse, your reaction to our
tristate neighbor's announcements was concerning to say the least, stating that it was "premature" to
say whether you'd follow their lead in lifting New York's mask mandate. And now, we are hearing
that the school mask mandate is expected to be renewed, according to Department of Health
personnel.

The concept that children must continue to wear face coverings while attending school ignores and
rejects available scientific data on the issue. Countless studies have shown that children experience
lower infection and transmission rates than adults. According to a recent study by PLOS
Computational Biology, kids are half as susceptible to COVID-19 compared to adults and that people
under the age of 20 are less likely to transmit the virus. This notion is further supported by a Clinical
Infectious Disease study, which showed that children are unlikely to be the source of COVID-19
household outbreaks and are less likely to be infected with COVID-19 by another household
member.

If sound scientific data illustrating low transmission rates by children is not enough, it has been ruled
that the state Department of Health does not have the legal authority to implement a school mask
mandate. On January 24, State Supreme Court Judge Thomas Rademaker issued a ruling that your
Administration's school mask mandate is unconstitutional, reaffirming that your authoritarian mandate is not only abusive in nature but also a gross overreach of power.

After years of abiding by public health safety guidelines, children are itching to be able to return to
some semblance of normalcy. Knowing that the risk of transmission among children is extremely
low, it is counter-intuitive to keep this ill-conceived mandate that does little to improve the wellness
and safety of our state's children. For these reasons, we urge you to end these punitive measures for
once and for all.

We appreciate your attention to this matter and welcome a quick resolution to this issue. We look
forward to receiving any response you can offer.

Sincerely,