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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana Attorney General Todd Rokita joined attorneys general in 23 other states in a lawsuit against the Biden administration over mask and vaccine mandates the federal government imposed on all preschool programs funded by the federal Head Start program.
Head Start is a federal grant program for children aged 5 and under geared to helping infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children from low-income families prepare for K-12 school.
The Biden administration in November implemented rules requiring masks for all children ages 2 and older in preschools in the program. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is also mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for staff, contractors working directly with children, and volunteers by Jan. 31.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday, argues the mandates are unlawful and accuses the Biden administration of bypassing standard notice-and-comment procedures when enacted the Department of Health and Human Services rule.
The suit argues that the World Health Organization has concluded that “based on the safety and overall interest of the child and the capacity to appropriately use a mask,” … “children aged 5 years and under should not be required to wear masks.”
“This mandate is absolute lunacy,” Rokita said in a written statement. “Forcing masks on 2-year-olds and expecting them to be capable of complying with such an order is absurd. Unfortunately, it’s also exactly the sort of edict we’ve come to expect from leftist demagogues in places of power.”
This lawsuit is in addition to Indiana’s involvement in three other legal challenges against the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates for federal contractors, employers with 100 employees or more and health care workers at facilities receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding.
“Hoosiers, in particular, will not passively accept the trampling of our liberties,” Rokita said in a statement. “That’s just not how we are wired. So just as with the first three mandates, we are fighting tooth and nail to protect Hoosiers’ individual rights.”
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I’ve found kids don’t get nearly as wound up about masks as their parents.
We’re laughing AT you, “Todd”.
Keep the pedal down, Todd.
Sure hope (not) you achieve your political goal, Todd. Don’ worry about science or whats best for the public.
Todd – you are sounding like the past president. Name calling with no merit. My 3 yr old has NO problem wearing a mask and does at pre-school. Its the parents and politicians that have the issue.
Todd Rokita is using the office of Attorney General to run for Governor in 2024. He should be investigated for wasting our tax dollars.
it’s an absolute tragedy that our supply of oxygen is wasted on someone like rokita
Indiana has been rated as the least safe state in re: to Covid. The Navy is providing support to our overwhelmed hospitals. And this is how you waste time and resources?
Truly pathetic, Todd. What is it about public health and doing the right thing that you’re not understanding?
Our tax dollars, hard at work on behalf of the virus. Thanks, Todd! I’m sure the death cult that supports you is thrilled that you’re keeping us safe from our government’s efforts to defeat the pandemic. And I’m sure you’re getting many rounds of applause from the virus itself… to the virus, you’re a hero!!
Mask mandates won’t matter if the classrooms don’t have teachers and schools don’t have support staff. It’s sad to see the focus on suing the feds to make the vocal minority happy, when the reality is that if our state government doesn’t start doing something to support our teachers and schools and improve the financials as well as change the attitudes and perceptions then we are going to have a crisis due to lack of teachers and appropriate funding for bus drivers, substitute teachers, and other school staff.
Masking young children is child abuse.
Michael P. – You likely don’t get out much, but I’ve seen hundreds of kids as young as two years old wearing masks in grocery stores, department stores, playgrounds, everywhere that masks can make a difference. If you think it’s abuse, I urge you to go to a social services agency and file a complaint. You’ll see how far that’ll get you.
That’s just ridiculous. I know plenty of elementary school kids, all of whom are really good about wearing masks, none of whom complain about it the way a minority of grownups do. Is this an ideal situation? Of course not. But do I want the pandemic to continue out of control indefinitely just because a minority of adults are whiners about taking precautions that benefit society as a whole? Absolutely not. It’s a good thing we didn’t have this kind of selfish, whiny attitude when World War II required sacrifices… we never would have won the war.
Agreed.
Zero rationale for children wearing masks and zero data to support it.
Over 800,000 deaths from Covid-19 and the anti-vaccers are still against all efforts to stop the spread of this virus. At the same time they are continuing to blame President Biden for not getting the pandemic under control.
It’s hilarious watching the Branch Covidians band together and gnash their teeth. Rowr!
Did you know that (presuming the 800K is true, and it almost certainly is inflated) that more people have died in a similar time frame under Biden than under trump?
Last year, the scapegoat was trump’s incompetence. This year, with more purportedly dead, do we blame the person holding the similar executive position? No, blame the unvaccinated. If the vaccines were so good, and Delta was–as the media told us–more transmissible but less lethal, shouldn’t the fact that a sizable portion of the population DID in fact get vaccinated contribute to a significantly lower death count in 2021? Why didn’t it? How long before the media starts calling the vaccine (whose mediocrity is increasingly difficult to defend) the “trump vaccines”?
I’m not a fan of Rokita at all, and I don’t really believe the arguments that children suffer psychological effects of masks. But I also don’t think the masks do anything, by the admission most recently of Dr. Leana Wen, one of the most lockdown-friendly medical authoritarians working today: “Little more than facial decorations”.
The one thing they do is bring the partisans out to flex their muscles in front of all their fellow team-members!
Yet another crank taking things out of context.
“Don’t wear a cloth mask. Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There’s no place for them in light of Omicron.”
https://reason.com/2021/12/21/leana-wen-cloth-mask-facial-decorations-covid-cdc-guidance/
Todd Rokita – an adherent of the America First cult – cites the World Health Organization (a globalist organization if there ever was one) to support his latest lawsuit. That’s rich with irony. I guess when the demons that he usually rants against are useful then never mind. Rokita’s hyperbolic declaration that the mask mandate is “the sort of edict we’ve come to expect from leftist demagogues in places of power” makes me think that his lawsuit is the sort of stunt we’ve come to expect from rightwing extremists in places of power.
I’m sure I identify with many common sense Hoosiers who are trying to figure out what we should do about family celebrations yet again this year.
Please remember that angst is totally on the shoulders of “leaders” like Rokita. This pandemic could of / should of been over long ago if political greed of the MAGA world hadn’t entered the equation.
“The political greed of MAGA world” has no political viability anywhere outside this country. Yet the pandemic rages on everywhere, including places with significantly higher percentages vaccinated than the US.
Still living rent-free in your head….
The “common sense Hoosiers” are the ones who recognize they’re being sold a pig and a poke by the “experts” and have decided to live their lives rather than lining up waiting for the Oracle at Fauci to tell them how many layers of diapers to put on their faces.