As I look inside the pages of  Sunday, June 21, 2020 Virginian Pilot on the second page is a glaring headline which reads ,"Virus Testing up, Positive Cases Down in Virginia." That headline screams that Virginia is defying the trend in other states that as more testing is utilized, positive cases are in an upward movement. Additionally, in that article, fifteen  localities and counties report their numbers, broken down into number of new cases, and number of deaths. Among the reported fifteen  twelve report NO CHANGE, and three report NO DEATHS . For example in Virginia beach, where I reside, a city of about 450,000 residents, there were 956 50 cases,  (up only 6) , 27 deaths, with no change. In the adjacent city of Norfolk, there were 723 cases, 7 deaths , with no change. Portsmouth reported 405 cases with no change, and 13 deaths. Poqouson reports 14  cases, no deaths. Hampton reports 258 cases, 8 deaths, no change. Matthews reports 5 cases, no deaths. Middlesex reports 5 cases, no deaths.

It is abhorrent to me, when the facts hit us squarely in the face statistically proving that Virginia is in downward trend, our Governor wants to require mandatory face coverings here June 21, 2020 exactly five months after the first confirmed case in the USA  was reported in Washington state on January 21, 2020, carried into the USA by a man who had just returned from Wuhan, China. Why now? I want to see the facts as to why wearing face masks now will help anything at all.

 It is equally mind boggling when we consider that Dr. Fauci initially told us all NOT to wear face coverings. Both Pelosi, De Blasio, and the NYC official told us all to just live our lives, going to bars and restaurants, just as the virus was getting a firm toehold in the US. Now, Fauci has shifted gears and told us to wear face masks. Let it be known and let it sink in that World Health Organization has come out and stated that face coverings should not be worn by HEALTHY people, but should be worn by people caring for sick COVID patients. Additionally,  A CDC operative has now stated that it is "very rare" for asymptomatic people to transmit the virus to others. New information which debunks the original narrative that the COVID virus can live for days on hard surfaces  has been circulated. In short, why should we listen to the so called experts when the narrative keeps changing like a kite blowing in the wind. I believe this manipulation to be akin to psychological warfare in which the victims are jerked around and beaten down by narratives which change and are meant to confuse.

Since the re-opening with Phase 1 and out door dining being allowed, we have supported our wonderful restaurants. It is almost comedic, but also sad, to see how many times restaurant employees and servers touch their masks and faces, and rub their eyes because of the discomfort of the mask. Haven't we all been repeatedly told  not to touch our faces? By mandating masks, government is negating one of the primary '"best practices"  that has been stated over and over. "DON"T TOUCH YOUR FACE." With all the touching and adjusting of the masks, I can only imagine the degree of contagion on those filthy masks.

I have done extensive research on mask wearing.  The cloth face coverings and other masks other than N95 do nothing to stop the tiny droplets should someone sneeze or cough. The droplets are so tiny that they permeate the cloth. If dust from spray paint jobs or sheet rock application can permeate the masks, as shown over and over on social media platforms,  then what makes us think that the masks will prevent the tiny  droplets from permeating the fabric in the masks.  Side effects associated with  long periods of mask wearing include terrible skin infections such as contact dermatitis, eczema, fever blisters (herpes simplex)(easy to understand as herpes simplex after the initial outbreak lives forever in the nerve endings and all it takes is some sort of irritation to activate it), acne, and fungal infections spurred on by the moisture trapped in the masks.  Additionally, there have been reports of hospitalizations resulting from  pleurisy, an infection caused by either viral contaminants of bacterial  contaminants  or by blood clots causing embolisms in the lungs caused by oxygen depletion. We know that clotting often occurs when red blood cells cannot deliver adequate oxygen to organs. Other side effects from wearing masks are shortness of breath and lightheadedness,  psychological problems from those suffering from claustrophobia and anxiety and depression, , suppression of the immune system which actually needs exposure to contagion in order to develop herd immunity, depression brought about by feeling cut off from normal human interaction, and a host of other infections.

Additionally, the requirement that employees must wear masks may very well be in violation of OSHA  directives which mandate that workers must not ever be forced to work in conditions in which oxygen levels fall below 19.5. Monitors inserted under the masks and which measure oxygen levels are shown to read levels below 19.5. People are on to the violation. Unless we want to see massive litigation against employers because employees are being required to wear masks which lower oxygen levels, government needs to stop now in its tracks from opening up that door in what has become a very litigious society. The irony that the government is violating its own OSHA  protections is not lost on me. If mask wearing is made mandatory in workplaces, then every employee should be given an oximeter, paid for by the Government , so that employees can rightly monitor their oxygen levels, so crucial in the time of a pandemic. Let's make that a law! Push for it now!

Also , in a push to make our planet greener, I see discarded gloves and masks all over our parking lots. Does that make sense to the people pushing for a greener world, and who want to ban plastic straws? Where do you think all of those masks are going to end up? Will they be recycled, when they were mandated to prevent contagion. Who would want anything recycled as such  in a time of a pandemic.

Before we have a discussion on mask wearing let's have a discussion on the nursing home situation, with 60 to 80 percent of morbidities taking place in nursing homes.  We all love our most vulnerable, right? Then, why oh, why are we not talking about what is happening in those elder care facilities? We now know that Governor Cuomo is complicit in allowing very ill patients to be sent to nursing homes, creating a horrendous disaster that we have never before witnessed.

Why don't we have a discussion about the use of ventilators. An iconic doctor that the governor probably knows from his association with EVMS in Norfolk warned us about ventilators early on, telling us about the 80 to 90 percent morbidity rate. We have learned from a nurse who came up to the epicenter in NYC from Florida under the FEMA program to work in Elmhurst Hospital, a public hospital that services the poor and the most vulnerable, that patients were being ventilated who did not need to be ventilated. And so they died.  There are reports in that hospital of forced DNRs, slow coding in which palliative measures are either slowed or non existent. So easy to do since advocates and families are not allowed into hospitals to be with their loved ones. When we hear reports that ventilator usage can be remunerated at up to $39,000, is it no surprise that ventilator usage, which actually damages the lungs when both the tube and the forced air is inserted into lungs which may already be damaged.  Is it too crazy for us peons to think that unnecessary ventilator usage and widespread mask usage may have more to do with bottom lines and healthy P/E ratios for companies  that are manufacturing them? I have heard that ventilators cost upwards of $70,000, far more that the cars that GM or Ford Motors are manufacturing.

In closing, please know that the mandate to wear masks out in public makes no sense at this juncture in time. Additionally, I hope that the powers that be know that mask wearing, during slavery, was forced upon slaves to symbolically mark them as not having a voice and as being owned and under the control of another person. That is exactly what we feel like in the great Commonwealth. The slaves were made VOICELESS! Do you NOT see the irony in stepping aside and allowing ages old monuments being defaced and destroyed in the name of indignation for past slavery, while  in fact trying to enforce a policy that was used by the  very slave owners that we profess to hate.

I sadly admit that we are thinking of leaving Virginia, after a lifetime of service to our community on boards such as EVMS Development  Committee, , Chrysler Museum of Art Board or Trustees, Chrysler Museum Corporate Leadership Alliance as chair (Husband) ,, Virginia Opera, Contemporary Art Center, Norfolk Society of Arts, Virginia Beach Development Commission, Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission (two eight year terms each), Hampton Roads Youth Center (founder), Virginia Beach Orchestral Association (President) ,Virginia Beach Hospital Board of Directors, Virginia  Beach Rotary  Board of Directors, Junior Achievement Board of Directors, American Red Cross Board,  and husband's  thirty year Supreme Court appointment to Committee on Lawyer Discipline (COLD) Virginia State Bar. Additionally, husband was honorably discharged from Virginia Air National Guard. Husband's awards include "Service Above Self' award Rotary International ( a rarely distributed honor), 1999 Judeo Christian Man of the Year, National Conference of Christians and Jews Honoree 2006, Samaritan House 100 Men Annual Campaign  honoree, 2013, Arthritis Foundation- Mid Atlantic  region Master of Ceremony, 2014.

It pains me to admit that Virginia no longer feels like home after a lifetime of service to make our communities of both Norfolk and Virginia Beach better . As someone who suffers anxiety and claustrophobia  in addition to breathing problems with mask wearing I sincerely hope that you take my hard  earned research under consideration when making this all important decision.  If mask wearing is continued at this juncture, that move seems illogical and tyrannical, and yet another measure of control.

I am asking that you not make Virginians throughout the state, a state that has not experienced the high case numbers and high morbidity of other states, have to bend to a mandate that may cause all kinds of reciprocal problems. Don't let Virginians have to echo, George Floyd's plea, "I can't breathe." I thank you for your time and I have good faith that you will take my thoughts into  consideration.  Kathleen M. Carter, resident of Virginia Beach, Bay Colony and Princess Anne Hills area since 1974