NewsSeptember 23, 2020
Cape County mask order will continue despite complaints
Cape Girardeau County’s mask mandate, initiated in mid-July by the county health department’s board of trustees, will continue at least one more month. Board members voted unanimously to extend the order Tuesday and will review it at their next meeting, set for Oct. 27. However, they agreed the order could be reconsidered sooner should conditions warrant, something they said is not likely...
Cape Girardeau County’s mask mandate, initiated in mid-July by the county health department’s board of trustees, will continue at least one more month.
Board members voted unanimously to extend the order Tuesday and will review it at their next meeting, set for Oct. 27. However, they agreed the order could be reconsidered sooner should conditions warrant, something they said is not likely.
The board’s action followed more than an hour of emotional public comments, peppered with raised voices and claims by some the mask order is “unconstitutional,” “illegal,” “communistic” and “draconian.”
At one point, the meeting was recessed for more than an hour after several people who were opposed to the mask order raised their voices and began shouting at the board.
The health department’s order requires everyone older than 9 to wear masks in public places within the county unless they have an overriding health condition prohibiting mask use.
Anti-mask complaints
More than two dozen people, most of them maskless, attended the meeting. About half of them addressed their concerns before the board, including several who reprised arguments they presented at the board’s July and August meetings.
“Masks are disgusting and very dangerous,” one person claimed.
“I didn’t vote for it (the mask order) and I don’t know any citizen who has,” asserted another.
“This is not the way we do things in America,” someone else said.
Many comments were met with applause from the crowd. Some in attendance accused the board and local health authorities of profiting from the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting hospitals and health care providers are receiving higher reimbursements for each coronavirus case.
One person went so far as to threaten to sue the health department over the mask order.
Several people asserted the mask order is causing depression among children and said they are afraid to go to school because they are being forced to wear masks.
However, a representative of the county’s largest school district said masks have made it possible for students to attend classes.
“The masking mandate is keeping our schools open right now,” said Jackson School District assistant superintendent Matt Lacy, who attended the meeting along with several members of the district’s administrative staff. “Whether we like masks or not, they keep our students from being quarantined, our staff members from being quarantined and gives us a sense of normality during a very tumultuous time.”
In addition to the public comments at the meeting, the health department board invited the public to submit comments about the mask order before the meeting through the department’s website.
“We had 245 submitted comments and we appreciate each and every one of them,” said board vice chairwoman Georganne Syler, who chaired Tuesday’s meeting in the absence of board chairman Roland Sanders. “Of those, 136 (55.5%) requested the order be continued, 98 (40%) requested the order be rescinded, five requested amendments to the order and six had unrelated comments.”
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Cases on the rise
When the health board initiated the county’s mask order in mid-July, the number of active coronavirus cases in the county had increased to more than 200 from fewer than 50 in late June. By early August, the number of daily active cases in Cape Girardeau County had fallen to below 70, but since then, there has been a steep increase in the number of daily cases.
With the addition of 24 cases Tuesday, the number of active cases in Cape Girardeau County increased to 411, the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic the county’s daily case count has risen above 400.
Since the pandemic began in March, 1,548 Cape County residents have tested positive for coronavirus. In addition, there have been 84 “probable” cases for a total case count of 1,632 as of Tuesday afternoon. With the addition of one death since Monday, a person in the 80-89 age range, there have now been 18 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Cape Girardeau County.
When asked at the meeting what benchmarks need to be reached for the health department to rescind the mask order, Syler said several factors would be considered, including positivity rates, hospitalizations and daily case counts.
She cited recommendations from the White House that restrictions may be eased when positivity rates drop below 5% and there is a two-week downward trend in the number of cases and the number of hospitalizations.
“Cape County is not at that point right now,” she said.
As of last Thursday, Cape Girardeau County’s positivity rate was 12.7% compared to Missouri’s statewide average of 10.3%, according to Jane Wernsman, director of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center.
Rates ‘will likely not change’
Although the board agreed to reconsider the mask order a month from now, Dr. John Russell, the health center’s medical director, said he doubted the numbers will improve enough by that time to warrant rescinding of the mask mandate.
“My medical opinion is that what we see with the current infection rate and current transmission rate will likely not change significantly in the next month and I suspect we will not see a significant reduction of the virus in Cape County, or anywhere else, until we have an effective outpatient treatment and/or a vaccine.”
Russell said he understands why people don’t like the face-mask mandate.
“I understand the emotion and I’m empathetic,” he said. “I personally lean toward being a libertarian with less government control. However, public health is the study and the direction of dealing with the public, and not individuals, and as such, we have to hold the yardstick up for doing what we believe is doing the most good for the most people.”
As for the effectiveness of face masks, Russell said, that won’t be known for months, and perhaps years, from now.
“We hope, but will never know until we look back, that our actions allowed us to serve the larger number of people,” he said.
For more information, visit the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center’s website at www.cgcohealthdept.com.
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