NASHVILLE – As a North Carolina manufacturer on Tuesday defended the safety of millions of coronavirus masks it has sold to the state for use by Tennesseans, the legislative Black Caucus waded into the controversy and called for a “full investigation” into the coverings that have been treated with an anti-microbial pesticide.
Citing news reports, Black Caucus Chairman G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, said after conversations among group members as well as officials in Gov. Bill Lee’s office and the state Department of Health, Lee agreed to stop distributing the masks.
But Hardaway said Lee “now needs to recall this obviously defective product and take it out of the hands of the general public.
“We know that many people in some of our more disadvantaged communities took advantage of the giveaway and now we need to protect them from the protection they believed we were providing for them,” Hardaway added.
The Black Caucus’ public entry into the controversy came as Lee’s administration on Monday revealed it was halting distribution of the estimated 5 million masks the state had purchased from Renfro Corp., a manufacturer of socks and other cloth products which has a facility in Cleveland, Tennessee, employing some 335 people.