Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Labor and Industry
 
Board
Safety and Health Codes Board
 
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6/21/20  12:43 pm
Commenter: Katherine Rancourt

NO MASK MANDATES
 

There is not enough scientific data to prove that masks work. And we all know that there are few people who are even wearing these masks properly.  When Dr. Fauci said that he "wears a mask as a symbol but that they are not 100% effective", he lost clout and authority.  This should be a personal decision.  I have a family member who wears hearing aids and has COPD. He cannot wear a mask on days that he is short of breath, and I cannot wear a mask or he cannot hear me.  So when we go off together anymore.  Not all locations will let us in despite the medical reasons that we cannot wear masks.  For those that are concerned about getting COVID from maskless people, they should stay home.  The science of asymptomatic carriers is NOT strong enough to support EVERYONE wearing a mask.  Let's talk about TB?  Do we all know who has that or are carriers for that?  Yet we haven't masked society up to prevent that from being an issue.  No one will want to visit VA if they have to wear a mask indoors at all locations.  The mask mandate will ruin tourism in certain areas of our state.  Some counties have had no cases!  Why should they have to wear masks?  And honestly, as soon as you stood behind the expert at your MAY 2nd presser as he admitted that each positive test was being counted, as opposed to just positive people, you lost authority.  This expert stated plainly and counted on his fingers that ONE PERSON COULD BE COUNTED UP TO 4 TIMES which inflated numbers.  He admitted that.  And then when it was on the national media that VIRGINIA was counting positive antibody tests in the positive case counts, you lost authority.  How can we trust any of the data that you are using to claim we ALL NEED TO WEAR MASKS?  Show us the science.  Why can we go to another state and behave almost normally but not in VA?  Why have 62% of the deaths come from nursing homes, but yet we all may be masking up?  The state of VA should be embarrassed by the actions of our leaders right now.  We want you to call a session of the General Assembly and start using fair government actions as opposed to creating Executive Orders that are not put through due process correctly.  The state of VA is over 100 days into a State of EMERGENCY.  The curve was flattened.  The hospitals are not overburdened Check out the Virginia Hospital Association Dashboard for current hospitalizations which is the only accurate data around.  Let Virginians decide if they want to wear a mask.  Let Virginians decide if they want to stay home if they are fearful of COVID.  The rest of us would like to move on.  Stop telling us to use 'common sense' when the leaders of this state are not using common sense NOR science to rule over us.  Last I checked I lived in America.  Sure does not feel like it anymore.  

CommentID: 81820