Odell’s Refusal to Enforce Mask Mandate is Political Grandstanding
The NFL, NBA and NHL players have been hit with COVID-19, causing them to postpone or cancel games because they don’t have enough players. Cornell University moved all final exams online and canceled university events due to the rapid spread of COVID. And here, in our own county, the Carmel Central School District decided to close the high school and go to remote learning for the rest of 2021. COVID figures are rising in all states.
MaryEllen Odell, our county executive, has chosen this time to announce that Putnam County will not enforce the mask mandate that Gov. Hochul recently put in place. Not that it matters that much that Odell and the county legislature passed the resolution. Everywhere I go people are masked up. They don’t want to take a chance they will get COVID-19. Odell announced that the Health Department is arranging a private-public partnership to create a COVID testing site in Carmel that will be open six days a week.
They understand the gravity of the situation. Why, then, pass a resolution that opposes their own state government, does not help county residents deal with this deadly crisis and will obviously be ignored? The legislature argues that the government does not have the right to order people to wear masks. This is empty political grandstanding. This does not save lives!
Phyllis Hoenig
Mahopac
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