It is naive of us to hope that we or they learned any lessons after the debacle of the original response to COVID. They aren’t reading the docs forced out into the public from Pfizer, the FDA, or the CDC. They don’t know what the experts had to admit was true.
That information needs to find its way into the hands of those who might listen because there is no debate about whether or not New Hampshire’s towns and cities have the authority to prohibit mandates. The governor refused to deny them that power during the last dance, claiming it was a matter of local control. No emergency orders were issued to protect your medical autonomy or health freedom. And there was no specific legislation to prevent towns from mandating masks (of which I am aware).
So, if you can mandate masks, you can also mandate that there shall be no mandate. That’s what happened in Huntington Beach, California. Yes, California.
Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark, who agendized the item, said during the council’s meeting that there have been reports of a possible COVID-19 resurgence, which could lead to more mandates.
“The City Council of Huntington Beach should take a stand against government imposing on individual liberties and broadly imposing response measures on individuals that have been proven to have little or no effectiveness,” Ms. Van Der Mark said while reading from the agenda item during the meeting.
The opposition responded with what I can only call an absurd response.
“None of us are public health experts, none of us are research experts. I’m the only person up here with a science and engineering background. For us to be making public health determinations when we’re a public policy board is wild,” he said.
The political reaction to COVID included elected or public officials (many) with no public health experience or expertise who openly disdained credentialed health experts who challenged or contradicted their approved response. More than a few of those elected officials went out of their way to call the testimony or public statements of experts on epidemiology, virology, and even air quality misinformation.
It was a very political response to an alleged public health issue because nothing about what happened after the first few weeks in March of 2020 was anything but political. Public health had nothing to do with it, so prohibiting top-down mask mandates in their jurisdictions is a critical act of local governments.
They exist to keep power closer to the people to protect them from tyranny if they are willing or able. Sadly, most are neither.
But individuals, and even business owners, should be free to decide if they want to mask up and let consumers and employees choose whether or not to take their “business” there or elsewhere.
It will become apparent, very quickly, how the people feel when they are allowed to vote with their feet, and anyone who trumpets the notion of local control needs to accept that this applies to every political unit down to families and individuals. And that by passing any mandate, you are denying them that.
HT | Epoch Times