Kids ‘Not Susceptible’ To COVID? Wrong, NJ-26 Candidate Says – Patch.com

NEW JERSEY — A Democratic challenger in New Jersey’s 26th district is questioning Sen. Joe Pennacchio’s views on COVID-19, including a statement the Republican lawmaker made about whether children are “susceptible” to the virus.

In November, Pennacchio – who once earned an award for his “conservative” voting record – will face a challenge from Christine Clarke, a former state Assembly candidate who describes herself as an environmental advocate and a grassroots organizer.

The 26th District includes the following municipalities in Essex, Morris and Passaic counties: Butler, Fairfield, Jefferson, Kinnelon, Lincoln Park, Montville, Morris Plains, North Caldwell, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Rockaway Township, Verona, West Caldwell and West Milford.

As it will for many other races in the 2021 election, the coronavirus pandemic will be among the biggest issues swaying voters.

Pennacchio, a retired dentist who lives in Montville Township, has been an outspoken critic of how Gov. Phil Murphy has handled the coronavirus pandemic, including mask mandates in schools, nursing home safety and open public records.

The senator has also supported the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to treat COVID-19, and has questioned whether children can catch and spread the virus – which Clarke blasted in a campaign video on Monday (story continues below).

Clarke, an organizer with the New Jersey March for Science in 2018, said she would “follow the advice of the medical community” and enact “science-advised policy” if elected.

Clarke went on to criticize the senator’s stance on the risks of the coronavirus among children, many of whom still aren’t eligible for a vaccine.

After Murphy announced the state’s mask mandate for the new school year, Pennacchio lambasted the decision as being “devoid of any science and data.” He wrote: “The delta variant does not change the fact that children are not susceptible to the virus and they don’t spread it.”

“Pediatric ICUs across the country would disagree,” Clarke countered Monday.

Child COVID-19 cases accounted for 26.7 percent of new cases in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 23, as per the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Here’s what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says about the matter, as of September:

“Children can be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 and can get sick with COVID-19. Most children with COVID-19 have mild symptoms or they may have no symptoms at all (“asymptomatic”). Fewer children have been sick with COVID-19 compared to adults. Babies younger than 1 and children with certain underlying medical conditions may be more likely to have serious illness from COVID-19. Some children have developed a rare but serious disease that is linked to COVID-19 called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C).”

Clarke also questioned the senator’s stance on the use of hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment.

“Senator Pennacchio pushed HCQ as a miracle cure for COVID-19 long before peer-reviewed science weighed in on the issue, and even after HCQ was found to be ineffective as a treatment for COVID-19,” Clarke said.

“As states started returning their stockpiles of HCQ, Pennacchio continued promoting the drug despite the science on it,” she added.

“A dentist is not an epidemiologist, and a politician who will not act in good faith on the best available science in times of crisis betrays the public trust,” Clarke charged.

Here’s what Sen. Pennacchio said about the use of hydroxychloroquine in January:

“In the desperation of the early days of the pandemic, with COVID spreading like wildfire in areas of North Jersey and New York, hydroxychloroquine was the only treatment showing promise. HCQ got a bad rap because of politics, and its off-label use as a COVID treatment was blocked … Politicians, insisting they knew more than the doctors who were prescribing the treatment effectively blocked its use and prevented further studies. They robbed the desperate public of a potential medical option when they were so desperate for any reason for hope. So much time was wasted, so many lives lost. So heartbreaking.”

Other recent coronavirus-related statements from Pennacchio include:

ON MASKS IN SCHOOLS – “This is the latest of a long list of edicts that haven’t made any sense. Masks were required for outdoor visitors to the beaches and state parks, and restaurants were forced to close at 10 p.m., as if the virus became more contagious later in the night. Prisons were opened up while orders sealed the virus among the elderly and frail in nursing homes with devastating effect. And now 2-year-olds crawling around behind masks. None of this ever made any sense.”

ON NATURAL IMMUNITY – “The science strongly suggests that people who have recovered from prior COVID-19 infections have a natural immunity that may offer a sufficient amount of protection to make additional vaccinations unnecessary.”

ON DR. ANTHONY FAUCI – “Dr. Fauci’s career may be long and may have some merit attached to it, however it seems to me he has been more devoted to the advancement of himself and political science than he was to the health sciences. This man does not deserve to be applauded.”

ON PCR TESTING– “Basing public health policy on a two tiered system that inflates one test and not the other is flawed.”

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