Will this ban leave people at risk?
North Carolina’s Senate issued a measure to ban anyone wearing masks in public, regardless of health issues.
Newton says protesters are using pandemic norms and wearing masks to hide their identities. “It’s about time that the craziness is at least slowed down, if not literally stopped,” he said, according to WRAL.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, more extensions were made to include people wearing masks for health reasons.
The measure will now have to receive approval by the state House before being sent to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who can sign or veto the bill.
Democratic lawmakers, alongside community activists and advocates for people with health issues, are concerned about the underlying consequences of the proposal. They also feel as if safety issues aren’t the real issue behind the bill.
“This bill is clearly in response to the recent protests on college campuses against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza,” Melissa Price Kromm, executive director of the grassroots group NC for the People Action, said. “Thus, it is another anti-protest bill.”
Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) called the bill “unconscionable.” Cancer survivor Sen. Sydney Batch said people that wear masks around her were vital during her medical treatment as her immune system was highly compromised. “Someone walking around with tuberculosis, wants to wear a mask to protect everybody else is no longer able to do that based on this bill,” she said.
GOP Sen. Danny Britt thinks there’s a way to interpret the legislation, arguing it would still be legal to wear a mask for legitimate health reasons. Sen. Natasha Marcus, representing Mecklenburg county, home to Charlotte, isn’t convinced.
“Is it really that you find masked chemo patients that threatening? Something about them makes you really angry?” Marcus asked. “Or is this, more likely, a desire to score some political points with the anti-mask crowd during an election year, at the expense of vulnerable people?”
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Source: Black Enterprise
