Jerry Nadler: Masking 2-year-olds during the pandemic was necessary to protect them from harm.

Rep. Jerry Nadler: Not Masking 2-Year-Olds During COVID Would Be “Child Abuse”

During a debate on the House floor, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) made a bold statement, saying that it would have been “child abuse” for 2-year-olds to not wear masks during the COVID pandemic.

Nadler’s comments came in response to an amendment proposed by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) to the REINS Act, which would give Congress the power to vote on vaccine mandates initiated through executive branch rule-making, such as President Joe Biden’s now-defunct COVID vaccine mandate.

“Two-year-olds should have been required to wear masks. It would be child abuse for parents not to do that because there was no vaccination available for 2-year-olds,” Nadler argued. “And the only way to protect them against COVID was to have them wear masks, and these mandates are meant to protect the public’s health and safety.”

Nadler: “When we have a pandemic like covid, two-year-olds should have been required to wear masks. It would be child abuse for parents not to do that.” pic.twitter.com/8dcF9MJhDC

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 14, 2023

These remarks from Nadler came after Rep. Roy criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra’s testimony before Congress.

“I want everybody in America to understand what they just heard from the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee in the United States House of Representatives,” Roy responded to Nadler. “Your 2-year-old should be forced to be masked. That is what the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee just said here on the floor of the House of Representatives. That the power of the government, the full power of the federal government, should be a part of ensuring and enforcing your children, your 2-year-old child to be masked.”

During the hearing, Becerra was asked if forcing 2-year-olds to wear masks saves lives, to which he responded, “Making sure people were masked when it was appropriate was essential to make sure that we were able to get out of this pandemic.”

Rep. Roy’s amendment, along with the REINS Act, was passed, giving Congress more oversight over presidential executive actions.

Recent studies have suggested that young children are at very low risk of developing serious health outcomes from COVID, and masks may not be as effective at reducing the spread of the virus as previously thought.

Although President Biden officially ended the COVID national emergency declaration in April, the White House faced criticism for enforcing a mask mandate and social distancing guidelines for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated visitors.

Lawmakers attending “College Athlete Day” at the White House were instructed to wear masks if they were not vaccinated.

After receiving backlash, the White House claimed that the email enforcing the mask mandate had been sent “inadvertently” and promised to send updated guidelines to event attendees.