Cape Girardeau County health board candidates present views at GOP forum

Two of the four candidates in the Tuesday, April 4, election for Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center (PHC) Board of Trustees appeared at a forum Friday, March 3, at Delmonico's Restaurant in Jackson.

Richard Swartz

Richard Swartz

Challengers Nancy Johnson and Richard Swartz answered questions before a gathering of Cape County Republican Women.

Incumbents William Lewis and Diane Howard were not in attendance as queries about government trustworthiness and the recent COVID-19 pandemic dominated discussion.

Johnson, a Michigan native who moved to Southeast Missouri in 1978, has run for the PHC board twice before. Her nursing background is in emergency medicine. Today she is a semiretired nurse practitioner and also is adjunct faculty at Southeast Missouri State University.

Swartz, originally from Kansas, is a retired general dentist, has lived in Cape Girardeau County for 33 years and spent 46 years in the dental profession.

Lisa Reitzel, the county's public administrator, posed questions to the hopefuls:

Given the fact that we know the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Anthony Fauci and our government lied to us about the origin of COVID-19 and the efficiency of the COVID shot, do you still believe in the CDC and our government? The Food and Drug Administration has never approved the COVID shot.

• Johnson: I have seen the CDC make multiple decisions. Do I agree with every one of them? No, I do not. Do I agree with our government? Absolutely not on everything. I'm a lifelong learner and I weigh everything by what is the best, for not only me and my family, but for you and your family.
• Swartz: I don't think the CDC had all the correct information. Back two or three years ago, we based everything on what the CDC said. I don't trust the CDC completely. I'm not anti-vax but we were rushed into (vaccines) and we're seeing the consequences of that.

How will you handle the next pandemic differently than how COVID was handled and/or what would you change in the way the protocols were handled during the COVID pandemic?

• Johnson: Not knowing what the next pandemic would be, that's a little hard to answer. I do believe the health department could have, and should have, given us more sources. There should have been more education. I don't believe fear is the way we lead people. We lead by educating, by giving (people) the ability to make a decision and by making wise choices. The best way to handle a new pandemic is to not drop in fear, and that's what our government did to us and it was wrong.
• Swartz: I would do other research to get more information than just from one source. As far as protocols, masking has not helped. They probably didn't know that at the time, but now we know that.

Do you believe a person should be arrested for not wearing a mask? I'm asking because previously, this was tried.

• Johnson: The mask mandate, and use the word "mandate" loosely, when COVID first came out, we didn't know what it was (and) didn't know how to protect ourselves. We didn't know what to do. Is it infringement of my belief and yours to wear a mask if I want to or not? Absolutely. I will never tell anybody they have to wear a mask. It's your choice; it's your body, Do I wear a mask? I do because I'm a health care provider. When I step into the hospital, I have to wear a mask at certain times, But I don't have a mask on today and I think there's my answer.
• Swartz: No, i don't think people should be arrested at all, We had people turning in (other) people for not wearing their masks and I think that's a mistake.

Of note

The Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center Board of Trustees is a five-member panel with oversight over the county health department, located at 1121 Linden St. in Cape Girardeau.

In addition to Lewis and Howard, other incumbents are Eric Becking, John Freeze and Georganne Syler.