South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster vowed on Monday to keep his state free of any further lockdowns and prohibit schools from mandating masks for children.
“For the government to mask children who have no choice to protect adults who do have a choice is the wrong thing to do, and we’re not going to do it,” McMaster said. “We’re not going to shut our state down as other states did.”
With COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths rising around the country, Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) says national health experts are “exaggerating, engaging in hyperbole and unnecessarily alarming people.” pic.twitter.com/pki2rFo8GR
— The Recount (@therecount) August 9, 2021
Instead of mandating masks, which McMaster said “is not the answer,” the Republican governor pledged to emphasize personal responsibility.
“Personal responsibility is the answer. Common sense is the answer. And we have an abundance of both in South Carolina,” McMaster said. “And there’s no need for the government to require masks in school at this time. There’s just no need for it now.”
McMaster also said he believes the corporate media and so-called health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies are “exaggerating.”
“If you listen to some of the national press and some of, even some of the national experts, who I believe are exaggerating, engaging in hyperbole, and unnecessarily alarming people, you may think otherwise,” McMaster said.
Earlier this summer, the South Carolina state legislature passed a budget bill with conditions prohibiting school districts from using government funds to “require that its students and/or employees wear a face mask at any of its education facilities.”
South Carolina is just one of the Republican-led states that have rejected pressure from the flip-flopping CDC, the science-denying Biden administration, and demanding teachers unions to allow parents to make health decisions for their children. While 26.3 percent of U.S. school districts still require masks, 25.1 percent are banned from issuing mask mandates on students or teachers who do not wish to wear them.
