FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 15, 2021
The following statement is from Assemblymember Michael Reilly (R-Staten Island) on today’s announcement from Governor Andrew Cuomo ending most of New York’s COVID-10 restrictions…
“For months I have been calling on Governor Cuomo to end the arbitrary restrictions that his administration kept in place despite widespread vaccine inoculation and growing herd immunity. Time after time, Governor Cuomo and his administration hesitated to follow increasingly less restrictive guidance from the federal government, despite telling us repeatedly to follow the science and trust the experts.
While it is good to see that Governor Cuomo is finally starting to take his own advice, there is no denying that today’s announcement is several weeks, maybe even several months, too late.
Put aside the fact that some of these policies were ridiculous and based on anything but science, I can’t help but imagine that New York would have reached the 70% benchmark weeks ago had Governor Cuomo and state health officials treated patients who recovered from COVID-19 and now have antibodies, like myself, the same as they do fully vaccinated patients. It’s an interesting thought, and I’ll be discussing this matter further with New York State Health Department Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker this week.
What perplexes me most, however, is that we are still forcing school-age children to wear face coverings in school, yet adults in most other settings are able to decide for themselves, on their own terms, whether to wear a face-covering or not. As I have said in previous statements on the matter, this flies smack in the face of Governor Cuomo’s repeated advice to follow the science and trust the experts. It ignores federal guidance that was updated several weeks ago stating that school-age children no longer need to wear face coverings while at school.”