Buffalo, NY (WBEN) While neighboring New Jersey and other states are moving to lift the mask mandate for schools next month, no decision about New York's mandate will come until Wednesday at the earliest.
The decision on masking is said to be based in public health and medical data, however political analysts say there are political ramifications tied into decisions on masking from leaders like New York Governor Kath Hochul.
Ken Kruly of politicsandstuff.com says the real ramifications should be about health and safety, but knows the reality is there are political ramifications.
"Some folks want to express their their opinions about politics, I think, in some cases, by commenting on the mask issue," says Kruly. "I expect there will be changes as we go along in the near future."
Does Kruly believe New York has reached a tipping point with the mandate? "That's hard to say, because we've had so many ups and downs on the the COVID experience that a new tipping point was changed to three months from now by something else. I think people obviously are getting weary of the ins and outs of the whole thing. And to that extent, I suppose we're at some sort of a tipping point," believes Kruly.
Republican strategist Carl Calabrese says the tipping point has been reached. "I think...it's funny, that tipping point may have come from our neighbors to the north in Canada.
"Canada has been pretty a docile country in terms of accepting restrictions and mandates, along with other countries like New Zealand and Australia, and where the first pushback came in massive form was Canada with the strongest convoy and I think they've hit a nerve," believes Calabrese. "I think it's energizing and fortifying other people who have been sitting on sidelines thinking they couldn't do anything to push back now saying, yeah, there is a way to push back. So I think that's going to be contagious. And I think that tipping point is common. A lot of credit goes to our neighbors to the north."
Calabrese believes there are two reasons why there's hesitation to drop the mandates. "One is I think they like the power, I really do think that once elected officials get power, they like to hold on to it. And they don't like to give it up. And I think that's part of it. The other part of it is fear. I think, New York politicians are especially afraid of lifting restrictions, and then having someone get COVID and die and be accused of having blood on their hands. And they know that's what the media will do. And that's what their opponents will do," notes Calabrese. He says leaders would rather see counterparts in other states take the heat first if things go wrong.
Calabrese says there's another factor. "For Democrats, if you look at the polls, and you look at how people now feel about restrictions and mass mandates, the overwhelming majority of Republicans, 75% plus, want them gone. The overwhelming majority of independents, 70% plus, wants the restrictions in the mass mandates gone. But when you look at the Democrat breakout, Democrats are still slightly more in favor, like 53% versus 47%, 53% in favor of keeping restrictions. That's the base of the Democrat party. That's the progressive left. And there's no question in my mind that the progressive left is really in the driver's seat these days when it comes to both the national and state Democrat parties," says Calabrese.
Hochul says she'll make an announcement regarding mask requirements on Wednesday.
