Publisher’s Note: What follows is public comment submitted by Vermont Independent publisher and Waitsfield town citizen Rob Williams, prior to a July 2020 Waitsfield Select Board vote in consideration of a mandatory mask mask wearing ordinance. The ordinance was defeated by a 3-2 vote, and conversation in our town and Valley community has been heated. A thoughtful consideration of the pros and cons of mandatory mask wearing, and the larger public health, scientific, legal, economic and political consequences of such a decision, seems warranted, since this issue appears to be increasing in intensity as we move towards autumn.

In Support of “Masks By Choice” For Vermont – Let’s Begin With Waitsfield

I write to the Waitsfield Select Board as a Waitsfield town citizen in support of our ongoing COVID-19 “masks by choice” policy rather than a “mandated masks” ordinance, such as the one adopted on July 1 by our neighboring town of Warren’s select board, and now the neighboring towns of Waterbury and Fayston.

To be clear, as a citizen of the town of Waitsfield, I fully support the right of any individual to wear a mask at any time, and I support the decision of any Waitsfield business to mandate mask wearing by customers in their privately-owned shop or store. 

I oppose, however, the passage of mandatory ordinance-driven mask wearing by democratically elected boards of civil authority, particularly given the tidal wave of media-induced misinformation, pharmaceutical industry fearmongering, and phobia-driven “group think” surrounding the current COVID-19 situation. 

Breaking news. Re: COVID-19,  we now know that (click on links) 1) COVID probably arrived in the US many weeks earlier than originally reported; 2) the COVID infection rate may have proved 80 times higher and doubled nearly twice as fast as originally reported; 3) COVID “asymptomatic carriers” (healthy people) seem to rarely transmit the virus to others; and now 4) the US COVID mortality rate appears to be hovering at a very low 0.26 percent; with the 5) global COVID infection mortality rate for individuals under the age of 45 down near 0. 

Given all this good news, I find it odd that the Waitsfield Select Board is currently considering making mask wearing mandatory by law for all citizens and visitors to our town.

Therefore, I respectfully urge members of the Waitsfield select board, in considering whether or not to pass an ordinance re: mandatory mask-wearing, to 1) thoughtfully consider the latest public health data re: COVID-19 (see above), and 2) professionally conduct an exhaustive review of the medical literature on the health consequences of mandatory mask wearing. 

Otherwise, a Waitsfield Select Board vote to support an ordinance re: mandatory mask wearing in our town – which will be by necessity based on fear rather than reason, politics rather than peer-reviewed science,  and “virtue signaling” rather than a well-researched respect for the health and wellness of your fellow townspeople – will literally choke off every Waitsfield citizen’s right to breathe freely in our community. Given the importance of fresh air, bright sunlight, and our collective human need to be in each other’s physical and emotional presence after months of CDC/WHO imposed “Lockdown,” this would indeed be a grotesque irony. 

Why would individual Vermonters make a choice to breathe freely by forgoing a mask? The answer seems obvious, but we live in strange and confusing times.  Having personally spoken to many friends and neighbors about this very question, rest assured that Vermonters who decide not to mask up are committed to a wide variety of scientific, medical, philosophical, health-related or spiritual points of view to justify their decision. And make no mistake. A mandatory mask wearing ordinance, if passed, represents a form of “medical martial law,” particularly if violators – your friends and neighbors – choose not to wear a mask in the face of such a restrictive ordinance. 

Four questions:

SCIENCE: What specific scientific studies conclusively indicate that mandated mask wearing will provide a solution to the COVID-19 situation? (Remembering that the WHO, the CDC, and most all the MSM news outlets are funded by the pharmaceuticals industry and powerful global organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who are NOT neutral objective actors in shaping and managing this “coronavirus pandemic” – witness the daily MSM shrieking about the “sudden spike” in “new cases” of COVID-19 all summer long, even as the COVID mortality rates across the country flatten towards zero – GREAT news, because this means that more healthy humans are contracting the virus with fewer negative effects, we’re moving closer to natural herd immunity, and thus, the virus is proving much less deadly than we were told last winter.)

Here are a few other questions worth considering re: a mandatory mask wearing ordinance:

ENFORCEMENT: How will this mandatory mask wearing ordinance be enforced?

PUNISHMENT: Will the Waitsfield Select Board subject their fellow citizens to civil, financial or even criminal penalties for refusing to comply to a mandatory mask wearing ordinance?

DURATION: For how long will this mandatory mask wearing ordinance be enforced? 

END DATE: How will we determine when we can remove our masks, by law?

LEGAL BLOWBACK: If a citizen or visitor is injured while wearing a mask mandated by local ordinance, can the the town of Waitsfield be subject to legal action by said injured party?

Big picture.

It should be noted that, until just a few weeks ago, every major US health organization, as well as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), all definitively stated that wearing masks has no impact in altering potential viral transmission between humans, because aerosolized viral particles are  much too small (measured in microns) to be blocked by any sort of face covering – “like using a chain link fence to stop a mosquito,” in the words of Dr. Rashid Buttar. 

Even more troubling, the regular wearing of facemasks brings health harm to otherwise healthy humans. How so? Myriad ways. Breath by breath, masks can decrease our oxygen intake and recycle CO2 instead of expelling this waste gas away from our noses and mouths, thus increasing our cortisol levels (stress, anxiety and fear), and decreasing the effectiveness of our bodies’ immune systems, not to mention the psychological harm that accompanies not being able to see, read and experience our fellow humans face to face, even at a distance. In short, masks dramatically decrease our highly evolved ability to read each other’s facial, social and emotional cues at a time when we most need access to each other’s faces, arms, and hearts. We’ve all experienced these traumatizing physical, social and psychological effects. Just ask anyone in town. Mandatory mask wearing will contribute to this traumatic situation.

Considering all these negative consequences, for the Waitsfield Select Board to mandate mask wearing through town ordinance would be to commit a double public disservice – compromising the health and wellness of otherwise healthy citizens, while offering false assurances premised on politicized science to our entire community under the guise of “caution.” 

I urge each member of our Waitsfield select board to take the time to thoughtfully research and carefully consider the consequences of this decision before calling for a vote, and I urge you to vote YES on maintaining a “masks by choice” approach in our town. 

Respectfully,

Rob Williams; July 9, 2020

PS: Here are seven readable scientific summaries re: the pros and cons of masks as a response to viruses.

Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D.; “Face Masks Pose Serious Risks To The Healthy”

Dr. Alan Palmer; “The Risks Vs. The Benefits Of Face Masks”

Denis G. Rancourt, Ph.D.; “Masks Don’t Work – A Review Of Science Relevant To COVID-19 Social Policy”

John Hardie, BDS, MSc, PhD, FRCDC; “Why Face Masks Don’t Work: A Revealing Review”

Lisa M. Brousseau ScD and Margaret Sietsema, PhD; “Masks-For-All for COVID-19 Is Not Based On Sound Data”

Colleen Huber, NM; “Masks Are Neither Effective Nor Safe – A Summary Of The Science” 

Ben Swann, “Why Face Masks Don’t Work, According to Science”