By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD – Gov. Chris Sununu is taking heat about his comments on mask wearing in a Face the Nation interview and the state’s sluggish vaccination rate when some are complaining they can’t get a booster appointment or child’s vaccination until after Christmas.

Sununu expected his Booster Blitz on Saturday to provide COVID-19 booster shots to 12,000 people, but only 10,500 were administered, according to his spokesman Ben Vihstadt, who responded Tuesday after a previous request for the number was unanswered.

“It was a huge success and plans are underway for another one,” Vihstadt said in an email. “Of course, some folks who booked an appointment may not have shown up due to the inclement weather, which is why the state quickly opened up boosters to walk ins midway through the day at over 10 locations in order to ensure anyone who wanted a booster could get one.”

During the Face the Nation interview Sunday, Sununu said he will hold a Booster Blitz every “couple of weeks.” Vihstadt didn’t respond when asked about criticism about Sununu’s remarks on Face the Nation that wearing face masks was like being put in a “penalty box.”

Vihstadt didn’t say when the next Booster Blitz will be.

More Blitzes Needed

But it won’t be soon enough to start catching up with the lagging vaccination needs of the state, according to state Sen. Tom Sherman, D-Rye, who said Sununu lost control of the pandemic in June.

Sherman, who is also a physician, volunteered at the Stratham Booster Blitz Saturday and said it was incredibly well run.

One mother approached him complaining that she couldn’t get her kids vaccinated until after Christmas, he said.

What the state needs, however, is 10 Booster Blitzes and a massive campaign to get kids vaccinated as soon as possible, Sherman said.

“All these people will be getting together for Christmas that could have been vaccinated had we been on top of this,” Sherman said. “Think of all the illness that might have been prevented in public schools.”

The state announced 22 new COVID-19 deaths Tuesday, 867 cases and 472 hospitalizations.

Sherman said: “There may be a role for indoor mask mandates that are based on infection rates in a given area.”

Sununu was wrong to equate face masks with being in the “penalty box” during an interview with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday, he said.

“Nothing could be further from the truth because it implies we are punishing people for practicing the two most effective interventions that we know of” – mask wearing and vaccinations, Sherman said, adding Sununu has not been a leader on either score.

On Twitter, state Rep. David Meuse, D-Portsmouth said, “If being required to wear a protective mask in a pandemic is like being put ‘in the penalty box,’ then how @GovChrisSununu, describe the plight of NH women seeking abortions who will be forced by his mandate to get an invasive ultrasound.”

Meuse was describing the ban on abortions after 24 weeks that requires anyone seeking an abortion to get an ultrasound and criminalizes doctors who perform them that Sununu signed into law.

Face the Nation

See Brennan interview transcript here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-new-hampshire-governor-chris-sununu-face-the-nation-12-12-2021/

During the Face the Nation interview Brennan asked Sununu if he was avoiding a mask mandate when the COVID-19 cases are surging because he had anti-vaccine protesters at his home and canceled the public ceremony for his inauguration because he feared armed protesters who objected to his health restrictions.

Sununu responded to Brennan: “Oh no, no, no, no, no, not at all.–“

Brennan asked: “It’s not a factor?” 

Sununu said, “No, no. It’s not a factor at all. That’s a very small contingency. So, at the end of the day, you know, you’d have to do a state – a full state of emergency. And I remember when I- if I do a mask mandate as a governor, remember, almost no state has mask mandates right now. But as a governor, if you were to do that, every district, every county, whether you have high transmission levels, whether you’re highly vaccinated or not, it covers everybody. And what you’re really telling folks is thank you for making the sacrifice and getting the vaccine, getting the boosters, doing the right thing and you’re still in the penalty box.”

Brennan said: “You got boosted yesterday. I understand. Why did you wait so long?”

Sununu responded: “Well, we did a booster blitz yesterday, which was great, so frankly, it was- it was out of promotion. More than anything, we put about 12,000 needles in arms across the state, all in one day in dozens of locations across the state. We’ll do it again. You can only do those every once in a while, because you don’t want to draw off of the hospital system and the nurses and the frontline workers that have to give that. So, every few weeks, we’re going to do these booster blitzes. And so, if anything, it was more out of the promotion of it. But it was a great day, huge – hugely successful, and we’re going to do it again.”