PHD: Public comment insights

At the recent Health Board meeting on Jan. 28, there was no mention of the public comments that had been submitted prior to the meeting.

We obtained these comments through a public records request and examined them. Out of 277 email comments submitted, 216 (78%) were against a mask mandate, and 61 (22%) were in favor.

Our impressions from reading all of these was that everyone was polite and courteous, whatever side they were on. If noted, ages of the writers ranged from high school to those in their 80s.

There were many that had lengthy and referenced explanations explaining their viewpoint. The vast majority were from local residents. A common theme from those against masking was that neighboring states and counties with widely differing restrictions have had very similar timing of case curves, implying something other than non-pharmaceutical interventions causing the rapid decline in cases, hospitalizations and deaths seen these past two months.

JP STRAVENS

ROBERT PARKEY

Coeur d’Alene