COVID battles

Daily Point

Long Island school board mask wars

As incoming Gov. Kathy Hochul prepares to take the reins and make an official decision on whether or how the state can mandate masks in schools, recent Long Island school board meetings foreshadow the mask wars to come.

Decisions by individual districts have been trickling out in recent weeks: Jericho, for example, has announced a mask requirement, while Massapequa said they will be "recommended, but not required."

Then there’s Commack, whose school board president, Steven Hartman, tells The Point that the district’s current plan is for masks to be voluntary for students at desks, but required elsewhere such as hallways, buses, while walking to the bathroom, or in small reading groups.

That plan comes on the heels of Commack school board meetings last week and the week before, in which some members of the public very, very vocally decried the use of masks in schools.

In those meetings, parents expressed disgust at "dirty masks," "those diapers," and teachers who were "mask crazy." They talked about "freedom of choice" and parents knowing best, and said wanting other kids to be masked for your kid’s safety was like going around the beach putting sunscreen on other people’s kids. "I know it’s a bad flu, guys, I’m not stupid," one pronounced, while others worried about fungal infections, acne, and students not being able to see each others’ faces.

There were strong emotions. Some parents shouted or choked back tears while giving their public statements. They interrupted other speakers — "Why do I pay taxes," one interjected. Another called masking "a violation of our constitutional rights."

The meetings also included some parents pleading for masks since they provide protection to the wearer and also nearby people by reducing the emission of droplets, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Community mask wearing substantially reduces transmission," one parent said.

But more parents spoke at the meetings on the other side, like one woman who worked herself up to a crescendo of American history citations, the threat of tyranny, a long somewhat-questionably-100-percent-accurate Daniel Webster quote, and the line "stop abusing our children": just a taste of what school board officials and Hochul herself will likely hear in the coming weeks.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Talking Point

Am I my Texas lieutenant governor’s keeper?

Thursday evening, after GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin finished up his interview on Fox News’ "The Ingraham Angle," he saw the segment was trending on Twitter. Co-panelist Dan Patrick, the Texas lieutenant governor, was getting blasted thanks to comments he made on COVID-19 and race.

But Zeldin, who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor of New York in 2022, told The Point Monday he hasn’t been asked about it since. That’s a little surprising, because it’s a hot topic in the Twitterverse, with some calling for Zeldin’s head because he has not called Patrick out.

The Fox segment was mostly about people trying to get to the United States from both Afghanistan and the southern border. The consensus was that Afghanistan is a disaster because people can’t get to the United States, the Mexican border is a disaster because people can get to the United States, and the whole mess is the fault of President Joe Biden and complicit Democrats.

But for her final question, Ingraham said to Patrick "And Dan, they're coming after your state — really quickly here as a response — coming after your state because of the increased COVID numbers, hospitalizations, deaths are up in Texas. And there's a direct assault on your governor's policies and your state's policies — very brief response."

Patrick responded: "Yes. Well, Laura, the COVID is spreading — particularly most of the numbers are with the unvaccinated, and the Democrats like to blame Republicans on that. Well, the biggest group in most states are African- Americans who have not been vaccinated. The last time I checked, over 90 percent of them vote for Democrats …. So it's up to the Democrats to get just — as it’s up to Republicans to try to get as many people vaccinated, but we respect the fact that if people don't want the vaccination, we're not going to force it on them. That's their individual right.

"But in terms of criticizing the Republicans for this, we're encouraging people who want to take it to take it, but they're doing nothing for the African-American community that has a significant high number of unvaccinated people, so they need — "

Then Ingraham cut him off to respond, they each quipped and the segment ended.

Since then, Patrick has been roasted for racializing the issue and, to a lesser extent, Zeldin has been called out for not calling Patrick out.

Zeldin told The Point he could not answer then because Patrick’s rushed answer ended the segment. Asked to comment now, Zeldin said, "If he feels like there is a general issue that we need to help the African-American community get vaccinated, then it’s not just Democratic politicians who need to do it. It’s everybody. Who helps who can’t be based on how a community votes or which party its residents support."

The bigger hit Patrick is taking on the comment is from when he said "the biggest group in most states are African Americans who have not been vaccinated," because, at least in Texas, it’s nowhere close to true. According to the state’s figures, the eligible but unvaccinated include 5.6 million white people, 4.9 million Hispanic people and 1.9 million Black people.

The lasting political question is whether Zeldin is going to have to repudiate far-right compatriots to have a shot at the gubernatorial win.

— Lane Filler @lanefiller

Pencil Point

Help wanted

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/nationalcartoons

Quick Points

It’s all in the follow-through

• After several decades of a one-child policy, China will now allow couples to have up to three children to stave off a demographic crisis of plummeting birthrates and an aging population — thereby becoming the latest entity to discover the perils of trying to engineer humanity.
• Republicans plan to use the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in the 2024 president campaign. Foreign affairs rarely is a defining campaign issue, and wasn’t in 2020, so what makes the GOP think this will resonate with voters three years from now?
• New York City’s big Homecoming Concert Saturday was supposed to celebrate the city’s return after the long pandemic. But infection rates are rising again and mandates are being issued, which makes the washout of the concert halfway through kind of appropriate, don’t you think?
• At that concert, Mayor Bill de Blasio at one point told what was left of the crowd that the performances would resume by 10 p.m., a promise that went unfulfilled. Also appropriate, don’t you think?
• Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair called President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal "imbecilic." And suddenly, Washington was abuzz with a new I-word.
• National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan acknowledged Americans in Afghanistan face threats from the Taliban and the Islamic State, saying "it is something that we are focused on with every tool in our arsenal." Except, apparently, common sense.
• New reports show dozens of priests at various levels of the American Catholic hierarchy using the gay hookup app Grindr. The only people who could have been surprised by that news are the priests who assumed their cellphone data was protected.
• Bye bye love. RIP, Don Everly.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie

Final Point

In the news — the answers

Here are the answers to Friday’s news quiz. Reading the first letters of each answer in order gives the answer to the overall clue asking for the name of one of the American politicians who tested positive for COVID-19 last week: Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas.

GRACE: The tropical depression that soaked Haiti two days after it was ravaged by an earthquake.

RETIREMENT: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo filed papers for this.

EIGHT: The number of months after being vaccinated that Americans will be eligible for a booster shot.

GERRIT COLE: Yankees pitcher who returned to the mound after being sidelined by COVID-19.

AMERICANA: Nassau County mall where a couple left a 1-year-old inside a locked car, leading to their arrest by police.

BOOK REVUE: Iconic downtown Huntington store facing eviction over nonpayment of rent.

BROOKS: Last name of the country music superstar who canceled the remainder of his stadium tour because of COVID-19 concerns (he shares his first name with a "Wayne’s World" star).

OBAMA: Construction began in Chicago on this former chief of state’s presidential center.

T–MOBILE: Company that suffered a major data breach compromising the personal information of 40 million customers.

TESLA: Company whose automated driving system is being investigated by the federal government after a series of crashes with parked emergency vehicles.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie

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