Dear Gov. Northam,

Your mask policy is based in fear and not science. And you are keenly aware of this in your unique position as a physician. Masks are for the sick, not the healthy. At the height of the pandemic, we were continuously told not to wear masks, because they do not help. Now that the curve has flattened, you are using fear to mandate the use of masks, while you are seen taking selfies with constituents, not social-distancing and not wearing a mask. 

There are risks associated to the behaviors of humans beings every day. The risk associated with this disease is extremely low. Please base your mandates based on science, actual data, and measured results, not the fear of what may or may not happen. Models are just that, and change based on the input. I know you are not a statistician, but please use real data that we have accumulated to make guidelines. Masks are for the sick, not the healthy.

You are also a governor, part of the executive branch. It is tyrrany for you to continuously be holding the state hostage to your mandates. We elect representatives to make laws that govern the way of life for people in the Commonwealth. You are not a representative! You cleverly get around setting "guidelines" and not "laws" and yet enforce them with Class 1 Misdemeanor policy, essentially creating law.

Masks are for the sick, not the healthy. Wearing a diaper, party hat, or whatever concoction someone chooses to put around their face is farcical, and obviously does not work to stop the spread of anything, let alone covid-19. And yet that is exactly what has been encouraged by you. The inconsistencies that defy logic that have come from the administration are laughable. How can the public possibly take you seriously! Those that are following are doing so in good faith, but you have lost the good faith of the public when this is your policy. A piece of cloth does not stop covid-19.

WHO has updated their guidance, saying the virus is no longer seen as lasting on surfaces like it was once thought. It also has issued guidance that only those who are with the sick should wear masks, not the healthy. As the science develops, so should our policies. Virginia seems to be going in the wrong direction.

Let's talk about the psychological toll, not from the shutdown, not from keeping businesses from opening that refuse to follow your draconian "guidelines," not from keeping families from seeing each other, and friends from embracing one another, but from seeing people in masks. This hurts child development for children, who cannot go days, months, years! without seeing people's faces. It's how they learn to grow. This hurts relational development in people of all ages, especially children, in an age and world of technology that has already stolen so much personal connectedness and contact. This hurts community development in  a current world that looks at a neighbor as the enemy instead of as a friend. The government does not need to encourage policies that only continue seeing one another as villains instead of good neighbors.

Please think of society as a whole. Please understand development of all kinds. Please end this mask mandate, as masks are for the sick, and not the healthy.

Sincerely,
Megan Getter