Mastriano says Dems 'meddled' in Bucks County COVID guidelines. County calls claim 'pathetic'

A prominent Republican lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate has joined in on dubious claims that a "political operative" sidelined Bucks County's top health official in making COVID-19 recommendations for schools last year.

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, of Franklin County, said the recent claims made by a small group of Bucks County residents "uncovered partisan meddling" by area Democrats in the county's Aug. 23 , 2021 coronavirus recommendations drafted last year, a claim even Health Department Director Dr. David Damsker argued against in a statement to this news organization last week.

“It’s no surprise that a Democratic operative thought he knew better than the director of the Bucks County Health Department when it came to school masking policies. It’s clear that a coordinated effort to force students to wear masks unfolded thanks to a rogue county staffer and pressure from the Pennsylvania Department of Health,” Mastriano said in a Wednesday press release from the Senate Republican Communications Office.

In a harshly worded response, Bucks County Commissioner Chairman Bob Harvie dismissed Mastriano's comments as frivolous and unfounded in a statement on behalf of the county to this news organization.

"This administration deems such a pathetic, blatantly partisan, uninformed and inaccurate statement to be unworthy of a reply. When your starkest defenders are Judicial Watch and January 6th insurrectionist extremist Doug Mastriano, that speaks for itself."

Bucks County Democratic Committee Chair state Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-10, of Lower Makefield, in a separate statement Wednesday afternoon echoing Harvie's "extremist" description and saying Mastriano's comments were a "political stunt" over a nonissue.

"As those of us in the State Senate know, and the people of Bucks County are quickly learning, Doug Mastriano is an extremist. ... I am certain that the people of our county will overwhelmingly reject his candidacy in November. In the meantime, his attempt to inject himself into a phony issue here in Bucks amounts to nothing more than a political stunt, and should be treated as such,” Santarsiero said.

Mastriano attended the Jan. 6 rally to overturn the 2020 election results at the U.S. Capitol and has declined to respond to questions from members of the House Jan. 6 Committee.

Jamie Walker, Megan Brock and Josh Hogan told the National Review two weeks ago they found metadata naming Eric Nagy, the county’s head of policy and communications, as the author of last year's document, which they claimed as proof that Damsker was kept out of the loop when the county updated its recommendations for the third time that month.

Metadata is information stored on a digital file that typically contains details about the file's creation, such as the name of the person using the computer the file was created on and when the file was made, but does not include any information on who actually wrote the content in the file.

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The story drew the attention of Bucks County Republican Committee Chair Pat Poprik, who issued a statement last week calling for Nagy's resignation and marking the first time a party official publicly acknowledged what county officials have called a conspiracy theory over the past year.

Brock, Hogan and Walker have been public and vocal opponents to mask requirements in schools throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Brock and Walker have filed many Right to Know Law requests for communications involving county and state officials for over a year now. The county is currently fighting recent records appeals the two won with the state's Office of Open Records in Bucks County Court of Common Pleas. Judicial Watch is now helping Brock fund her legal fight.

In a statement to this news organization last week, Damsker seemed to rebuke claims that anyone in the county was working against him last year or that he was coerced or forced to change guidelines.

“No one in County administration, including the Commissioners, was happy with changing our school reopening guidance last-minute. However, a very publicly distributed letter from then-Secretary Alison Beam, the top health official in the state, simply could not be ignored,” Damsker wrote.

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A deluge of demands from area residents for the county to mandate masks in schools during a spike of COVID-19 cases last August prompted the county to issue broad recommendations on Aug. 15.

The county has maintained that it has never had the authority to force a school district to take any action as the districts are represented by their own board of elected leaders. In fact, some districts continued to be mask optional despite the county guidelines

Last year's recommendations initially didn't advise schools to require masks, but a call from county hospital administrators led to an Aug. 17 change recommending school districts drop their mask-optional policies.

On Aug. 23, Beam sent a letter to the county, which was released to this and other news organizations, rebuking parts of the initial guidance for testing and quarantine periods that didn't match guidance from the state or the Centers for Disease Control.

“Obviously, the Secretary’s letter put the County in an impossible and very public position where no decision was going to please everyone,” Damsker said.

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“Between the Secretary’s letter and the similar request made by local hospitals a few days prior, the County had to make a change. Without those two factors, our August 15th guidance would have stood.”

The fact that the county's school guidance changed after the call with the hospital and Beam's letter were widely reported at the time.

Mastriano, who has made pandemic policies a top talking point in his campaign against Democrat Attorney General Josh Shapiro for governor, used the changes in Buck County's policy to bolster support for a bill he introduced in January currently languishing in the Senate's State Government Committee.

Mastriano's Senate Bill 996, would establish a "parental bill of rights" to "enumerate the rights of parents and legal guardians to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their child."

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Mastriano latches on to dubious COVID policy claims in Bucks County