Opinion

Editorial: Berger and GOP desperation to keep power

Monday, Aug. 2, 2021 -- There is no acceptable rational for anyone, particularly the leader of North Carolina's state Senate, to urge people to ignore the common-sense advice of the CDC.

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DRAUGHON DRAWS: CDC's  advice on masks and cookie dough
CBC Editorial: Monday, Aug. 2, 2021; Editorial #8689
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company.

In a twisted effort to win a few votes North Carolina Republicans are willing to, quite literally, sacrifice the lives of public school teachers, administrators and even students.

That is not an extreme interpretation. It is the reality coming from GOP leaders amid the lingering and deadly COVID-19 pandemic and the irresponsible and divisive rhetoric for the sake of raising a few campaign dollars to pander to the most extreme elements of their political base.

In a cliché-riddled campaign fundraising pitch state Senate leader Phil Berger insulted the non-partisan medical and scientific professionals at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as “Left-Wing bureaucrats playing political games and trying to control Americans lives.” In the email labeled “guidelines to ignore,” he facetiously likened recommendations for protection against the deadly coronavirus to admonitions against eating raw cookie dough.

These professionals at the CDC are working desperately to save lives and stem the spread of the deadly virus that has taken more than 13,650 lives in North Carolina and 613,000 nationwide.

Until more people are vaccinated and until the disturbing upward trend of infections, hospitalizations and deaths is reversed, public officials should mandate masks be worn inside public schools. This is not a hardship -- common sense and public safety demand it.

The vast majority of North Carolinians support mandates on wearing masks -- 74% according to the Elon University poll and 64% in the Spectrum News/IPSOS poll.

If there are parents who don’t want their children to wear masks at school, these students should be offered the choice to attend class via virtual instruction options.

If there are school systems or schools that lack mask mandates, classroom teachers and school administrators should refuse to go to work. No one should be required to needlessly and recklessly risk their lives to fulfill an ideologue's political agenda.

There is no acceptable rational for anyone, particularly the leader of North Carolina’s state Senate, to urge people to ignore the common-sense advice of the CDC.

What the letter did expose is the depths of irresponsibility Berger will go to in an effort to raise money and divide the community merely to seize some potential partisan advantage.

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