Appeal to the Board of Supervisors

Thank you members of the Board for having me, and for your close attention to the issues affecting us at this time.

I urge you as the board of Supervisors to NOT ratify the latest Health Department orders and DO NOT approve continuance of the local state of emergency. As I know that you all know, Orange County has had a grand total of 147 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the three months that we have been recording them. This does not come close to a state of emergency. In fact, to call it thus, just in order to have funds come to us from the state and federal government seems to me immoral and fraudulent.

If 147 deaths in three months constitutes a cause for a local emergency, then the 544 deaths of influenza during the flu season should have caused that, as well. Or the approximately 5,300 deaths that have occurred during that time from all causes.

http://cams.ocgov.com/Web_Publisher/Agenda06_02_2020_files/images/28_2-05052020_9854711.PDF

According to a memorandum attached to today’s agenda, entitled “5/4/20 – Memorandum submitted by Vice Chairman Do,” QUOTE “Based on hospitalization data, Orange County has not experienced a crisis level of COVID-19 cases.” UNQUOTE Where is the emergency? Why are we still calling this a state of emergency? We have never reached, nor are we in danger of reaching, emergency status with regard to COVID-19 in Orange County. We’ve run down the wrong path in this, and let us quickly correct before we get ourselves deeper in.

We have not been mandated to wear face masks up to this point, and there have been plenty of us not doing it, and yet we have not spread Covid-19 wildly out of control. When this all first started, no one was social distancing, obsessively cleaning, or staying home, and yet the virus did not take off and kill massive amounts of our population, contrary to wildly inaccurate projections. The data shows that places that have NEVER locked down their society have average numbers of case and death rates resembling ours, whether countries or other states. There is no science to show that the lockdown works, that social distancing works, nor that face masks work. There is plenty of information from various doctors about how face masks are detrimental to the person wearing one, and in fact there are reports of people dying from use of them, collapsing a lung from face mask use, losing consciousness, and other serious health problems. How the county could see fit to mandate such usage is not understandable. The county has provided no data on which this decision has been based, and in fact when I have called asking for that information the only answers I’ve been given have been that “face masks are said to be useful in slowing the spread of COVID-19.” Again, no evidence. The CDC’s own website has no evidence listed confirming the effectiveness of face masks.

As far as I can tell, this arbitrary decision has been made based on peer pressure – if everyone else is doing it, it must be helpful, right? Well, as my mother used to ask me, if everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you jump, too? It seems the health department of Orange has jumped.

According to many, many doctors face masks can cause all sorts of harm, including headaches, hypoxia, hercapnia, skin irritation, loss of consciousness, impairment in immunity, along with the psychological effects of distancing from other people, affecting a hostile attitude, false sense of security, and other issues.

Studies have found respiratory infection was much higher among healthcare workers wearing cloth masks, and the World Health Organization has recommended that ONLY people who are healthcare workers, sick and exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, or anyone taking care of a person who is sick with COVID-19 should wear a mask, and is not recommending widespread use of non-medical masks for healthy people. The data is far from solid in favoring face mask use; why would Orange County want to mandate something with so many possible adverse effects?

Please do not ratify the Health Department orders if they contain the mandatory face mask provision; Either amend the orders to remove the requirement, or better yet, do not approve continuance of the local state of emergency.

Thank you.