'It's just putting on a mask': CBS host smacks down GOP governor who says wearing mask is a 'penalty box' https://t.co/pSFS0YEhok
— Raw Story (@RawStory) December 12, 2021
If so, remind me not to visit there.
"What you're really telling folks is thank you for making the sacrifice and getting the vaccine, getting the boosters, doing the right thing and you're still in the penalty box!" Sununu said.
"Penalty box!" Brennan exclaimed. "No! It's not a penalty box. I mean, for people with unvaccinated family members, small children, immunocompromised, it's just putting on a mask."
"Sure," Sununu replied. "If I were to put a mask mandate in now when do I undo it? Covid isn't going away for the next couple of years. We're going to have Omicron, we're going to have new variants."
"How about the winter?" Brennan asked.
"At the end of the winter? Then it comes back again and then the state of emergency is on and then it's off," Sununu complained.
"You said winter was a factor," Brennan pointed out. "So keep a mask on for winter. Take it off in the warm weather."
Sununu insisted that he "strongly" encouraged people to wear masks "but that is just one small piece of the equation here."
"At the end of the day, it's about personal responsibility, getting that vaccine, getting that booster, being smart about it, getting yourself tested early," he said. "All of these are the most important piece of the puzzle to bend the curve and making sure we push back on Covid."
Despite his calls for people to be vaccinated, Sununu's state is currently suing the Biden administration over vaccine mandate rules.
Sometimes I think the whole country has gone mad.
The Sununu family are high end grifters without a shred of morals among them. They are only less bad than the worst of them because New Hampshire isn't as uniformly Republican as it once was. They would be as bad as any of the others if they thought it would get them something.
ReplyDeleteUp to now New Hampshire's public health failures were at least arguably limited to the individual. No helmet law for motorcyclists, a limited seatbelt law, and such. They have public consequences but most of the negative outcome falls on those that fail to protect themselves. Now our current government wants to allow citizens to risk the lives of other citizens. Sununu has painted himself as a moderate but has has signed into law a raft of conservative legislation, and is using the mechanisms of state to attack those as perceived as the enemies of conservatives, public schools, universities and more. Sununu is popular enough in the state that I doubt that he could realistically be primaries from the right, so his resistance to masking and other actions to reduce the rates of infection are not a demonstration of a political calculus, but revealing of his core beliefs.
ReplyDeleteMy job has mandated masks and social distancing again since mid-September, when infection rates had just begun to rise. Friday the company announced that staff has a fully vaccinated rate of almost 90%, in a state with an average of only 55%. There is only so much however that individuals and companies can do if the broader government fails to act. Omicron is doubling every two or three days, we will soon be swamped with another wave. Our hospitals are full and starting to diver patients. There are no ICU beds. And out elected officials refuse to be responsible or accountable.