XENIA – Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) told reporters Wednesday afternoon via Zoom, "Today Governor Pritzker put his personal political agenda in front of what we know to be the best interests of our students and their education. Governor Pritzker once again wants to force mask mandates on children. This unilateral move, without engaging the legislature does not make him a leader. It makes him a failure."
Bailey has fought Pritzker's mandates for over a year, and said that he is not ruling out the possibility of filing a lawsuit against Wednesday's announcement.
Bailey said he opposes any health mandates, and quoted scientific studies that say children under 12 are not seriously threatened by COVID-19, and that schools have not been sources of super-spreaders throughout the state.
The science and data has clearly shown us that school age kids are not statistically vulnerable to critical illnesses or death from COVID 19," Bailey said. "The governor had not produced any evidence to contradict those statistics."
Republican candidates Bailey, Gary Rabine and Paul Schimpf have all issued statements criticizing Pritzker's announcement.
See IllinoisReview.com for more news.
