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New Yorkers, please call your state rep, state senator, and Kathy Hochul and tell them NO MASK BANS. This garbage proposal would kill people. We're on the verge of a measles epidemic and this terrible governor is pushing this? NO. Find your reps here: reps.fyi gothamist.com/news/gov-hoc...

I am furious. You can call Hochul at 1-518-474-8390. You can send her a note via her website here. www.governor.ny.gov/content/gove...

Seriously, call your local reps. State assembly members and senators, because Hochul's bringing this up during budget negotiations. But also city council members. Tell them to tell Hochul to leave New York City the hell alone. reps.fyi

I keep interrupting myself in the middle of leaving these damn messages for my reps to say out loud "I can't believe I have to call about this." So angry.

I called Hochul's office again and pressed "2" to speak to a rep instead of just leaving a message -- and actually got through for the first time in recent memory. Please make these calls, friends. Tell her this mask ban will kill people and to STOP PUSHING IT. 518-474-8390.

Dan Gilmore notes that the original article has been updated with more info from Hochul - thanks! She appears to be calling for a mask ban with "exceptions for religious and medical use." But any mask ban would be weaponized & decrease mask usage during a time of pandemics. bsky.app/profile/gilm...

And allowing for medical exceptions is just handwaving. Will I have to get a note from my doctor to wear a mask? What about people without doctors? What about the cost of obtaining an exception? What about the fact that cops will stop and frisk regardless and thereby increase danger to people?

Hochul raises the specter of subway crime in the new quotes in the article. But we all know a mask ban would be enforced against demonstrators as a pretext for arresting them regardless of whether they've broken any other law. This is a public health threat and a first amendment threat.

Also worth noting some of Hochul's history with masking. Back in 2022, she shared the MTA's terrible new campaign announcing that masks would not be required any longer - a campaign that actively MOCKED masks and encouraged improper mask wearing. She doesn't get it. www.npr.org/2022/09/08/1...

Finally, it's worth noting that mask wearing works best when MORE people wear masks. So sure, you can argue that folks who really want to mask can get medical exceptions and I guess avoid exercising their 1st Amendment rights in public. But overall, the effect will be fewer masks - and more disease.