Families with tots want mask meet ASAP
Fed-up parents tired of the Adams administration blowing them off over the city’s prolonged toddler mask mandate have called on the mayor to address their concerns by next week.
More than 200 fuming parents of toddlers signed on to a letter sent to city officials Thursday requesting a sit-down with Adams and Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan by May 17.
“We write this letter because our hundreds of phone calls and emails, and our direct requests for meetings, have gone unanswered,” reads the missive, obtained by The Post.
The families pressed Vasan to follow through on comments he made in a recent Atlantic article that he would be glad to have a “good faith discussion” about the toddler mask mandate.
“We want to review the city’s analysis of how the benefits of covering the faces of babies who are still in diapers outweighs the harms,” reads the letter. “We want to know why our young children continue to be masked even as every other resident of this city is given the option to unmask, regardless of vaccination status.”
Adams said Thursday night that he was going by the advice of his health experts and he would continue to update New Yorkers on the rules.
“I want to remove masks and see our babies’ faces as quickly as possible, but we have to do it when the science says it is safe to do so,” Adams told The Post.
Toddlers were set to go mask-optional in child-care and schoolbased facilities at the start of last month, but the decision was rescinded when cases of COVID-19 began to tick up again in the city.
Some parents have loudly protested the measure that they say puts kids under 5 on uneven footing with the rest of New York City students — who have been able to ditch their masks since March.
Last week, toddlers were finally permitted to remove their masks outside, off school premises, including in public parks and on outdoor field trips.
The slow pace of rolling back COVID-19 restrictions for toddlers has put Vasan in the line of fire for parents’ frustrations — including some who have showed up at his home with hammers and baseball bats, he told The Atlantic.
Parents who signed the letter told The Post they are looking for civil dialogue and blasted protesting at the commissioner’s home.
“We have not been outside Dr. Vasan’s house,” Tara Murphy, a mom and former preschool teacher in the West Village, said of herself and the other signatories. “We just want answers about why we don’t have a choice when the vaccine is not ready.
“The time is now — every little day counts,” Murphy added, noting her 4-year-old daughter “will have no memory of preschool without a mask.”
The Health Department did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.