Hello Friends and Neighbors,
On August 23, 2021, a Watertown non-elected local governmental body decided that 36,000 Watertown residents must, as of August 25, 2021, wear masks while indoors stating, ‘The Watertown Board of Health has issued an Order mandating the wearing of face coverings indoors throughout Watertown.”
In so doing, a small group of appointed individuals with varying levels of medical and public health credentialing mandated that we, the residents of Watertown, MA, cannot decide for ourselves when and where to wear a mask to manage our own health.
The Watertown Board of Health’s (Board) mask mandate is troubling. The Board has decided that 36,000 people are incapable of discerning their own private health needs and risk tolerance. In forcing a mask mandate, the Board effectively treats Watertown’s population like children who lack judgment.
The Board’s insistence on a mask mandate in light of the data should give us pause. In reviewing the August 24, 2021 data posted by the State of Massachusetts, the average age of a COVID-19 fatality was 75 years, and the COVID-19 hospitalizations were overwhelmingly skewed towards people over the age of 70.
In contrast the 2020 census data indicated the vast majority of the residents in Watertown are under the age of 70 where the median age is 38. Yet, the Board treats all 36,000 as having the same chance of suffering and surviving COVID-19 as the age 75 and over population.
I have a few questions:
• Do the citizens of Watertown want their future days to be subject to the dictates of a Board of
Health who treats them as children?
• If we are an overwhelmingly younger and healthier population, then why are we being managed
like we are suffering from COVID-19 at the same level as the age 75 and older demographic?
• Why can not we proceed as if we are healthy and responsible adults and have those with preexisting health conditions make the choice to mask and or avoid the public?
• Why does a non-elected administrative Board have the power to force us to wear anything and
treat us like a danger to ourselves and others?
There has to be another way to live other than forced masking of an established healthier and younger population.
I ask the Watertown Board of Health to rescind the mask mandate. Watertown is the home of a people who have the ability to negotiate their own health needs. We should not be governed by a non-elected administrative Board.
Our fundamental ability to chose how we live is being eliminated based on the premise of health and safety by a non-elected Board of administrators. This must stop.
Elan Rohde
Watertown Resident
While I agree with the premise of the letter writer, we have seen what the “honor system” of mask wearing decisions has done to this country. While Watertown may trend younger many of our school age children are ineligible for the vaccine. Therefore I am fine with being “asked” to wear a mask at all indoor venues. It is a small inconvenience for the greater long term good.
“In so doing, a small group of appointed individuals with varying levels of medical and public health credentialing mandated that we, the residents of Watertown, MA, cannot decide for ourselves when and where to wear a mask to manage our own health.”
Wearing a mask isn’t just about managing one’s own health, but also about protecting and honoring the health of one’s fellow residents. Those who may need more protection (read: immunocompromised folks and children under 12). I’m asking you, fellow resident, to help protect my young kids (and all kids in town) who aren’t protected by a vaccine yet. Ride it out for a bit longer. Please.
Please try to debate the issue and not the person. People should be able to make their point without getting personal.
Agree!
100% agreed
“ Why can not we proceed as if we are healthy and responsible adults and have those with preexisting health conditions make the choice to mask and or avoid the public?”
You need to resign or be removed from the Watertown Commission on Disabilities.
This may too harsh of a suggestion, maybe providing real non politicized educational material for this poster may be more useful. I also volunteer to share with her my personal experiences of treating non masking, vaccine refusing Covid + patients as a medical professional these last 2 years.
The Board of Health has the statutory authority to make this decision and is following the scientific and medical consensus about mask use and its positive effects in slowing the spread of a virus that has killed 630,000 Americans so far. Your so-called “questions” and your attempt to delegitimize the Board’s authority won’t work, nor should they. Watertown is much smarter than that, thank God.
Agree. And this has zero to do with science and/or real appreciation for science. Twnety years ago people readily gave up rights, even though according to security experts we safer right after 911. Gee I wonder what changed? God forbid if you said people were overreacting or we were going after the target or you refused to be PC and called French Fries what they were, which was French Fries. Hypocrisy abounds here on an order of magnitude that is unprecedented. At least be decent, by not playing around with the lives of others.
*wrong target
Amen Rita!
I applaud the board of Health’s Devision.
Wearing a mask is a small inconvenience.
Agree!
What is wrong with people that don’t get the mask policy and the benefits?
To Elan Rohde if you don’t like the indoor mask policy then take your business elsewhere. It’s that simple. Do you think a business owner wants to risk a covid outbreak in their business and have to shut down and/0r risk their employees health. I don’t want to visit places that have no make mandate in place. All because of people that think it’s their right to not obey by guidelines set by the town and private businesses.
What is so difficult about wearing a mask to protect all those around us that are vulnerable to infections and/or can’t be vaccinated.
If you do in fact serve on another board in town then I hope you get removed ASAP. Your nonsense is not needed in this town. Interested to hear what your medical background is also. All the medical experts I know strongly suggest wearing a mask for protection against getting sick.
Well said.
It asks so little to wear a mask.
“• Do the citizens of Watertown want their future days to be subject to the dictates of a Board of Health who treats them as children?”
Well if some people are going to stomp their feet and act like children about such a simple thing as wearing a mask then they are left little choice.
I find it amazing that you would get so angry about it. It is NOT a violation of anyone’s freedom to do something that protects everyone’s health. Just he opposite.
We are in a deadly pandemic. it is an attack on my freedom if you don’t practice masking and hand washing to be safe.
The mask refuseniks and the anti-vaxxers are so tiresome. It seems too many people have been poisoned by partisanship into thinking refusing to mask up is a political statement, and not getting vaccinated is an act of political defiance. Masking up is a minor inconvenience, and the vaccine is safe and does not contain magnets; nor does it cause COVID or sterility. The mask and vaccine resisters enjoy the luxury of being selfishly irresponsible in a society where others are being responsible for them. They are safer because others took and are taking appropriate precautions to be safe. So, here we are in a situation where people will continue to die of ignorance and stubbornness, trying to prove they are right – dead right.
I applaud the Board of Health’s decision, which they have the authority to make. I’m happy to wear a mask to protect those in the population that are higher risk even though I am not one of those people. The argument that those who aren’t at high risk shouldn’t mask and those that are high risk should is completely backwards. The ones who are healthy and able should mask to protect the ones who are high-risk. That is how a community is supposed to function.
Glad to see most people responding to this letter are about the health of others and not about making a personal statement regarding some violation of individualism, and that the standard bearer is science, and not the cult of personality.
Thank you for your complete lack of empathy or compassion for our older neighbors, our children, and those with chronic illnesses, all of whom either cannot yet get a vaccine and/or are at higher risk of severe disease, hospitalization, or death. I am sure they are all happy to know they are less worthy citizens of our town than than you.
I don’t like wearing masks, but I do it for others. If wearing a mask prevents a Delta outbreak and keeps kids in schools, then I’m happy to oblige. The anti-mask argument is becoming so ridiculous and played out. People are just looking for ways to be oppressed. We could have been out of this hellscape months ago if people stopped politicizing public health.
Dear Anti-maskers: Wearing a face mask may limit exposure to respiratory droplets and large particles and may help prevent people who have COVID-19 from spreading the virus. Wearing a mask protects our community. The delta variant evolved because not enough of the population was vaccinated in time to stop it. If you are vaccinated, you will likely have no symptoms or at least NOT DIE from the infection, but you can still be infected because the delta is quite contagious. If you go maskless, you can infect others. Thus, the mask mandate is still in place—-to save lives.
The letter writer is 100% correct.
By what authority does this Board presume to tell a private business who can and cannot go into the business?
Where is that law, rule, or regulation on masks or anything else?
It does not exist.
The Board exceeded its authority.
By the way, Board, I have seen some pretty unsanitary restaurants and grocery stores out there. Their restrooms too are grosteque.
Some restaurants don’t clean their tables well, and grocery stores allow non-service dogs in.
Why do you allow this?
They aren’t telling they can’t go into a business. They are telling them that for public safety reasons they need to wear
a mask while doing so, right along with wearing shoes and shirts…..
DUMB RESPONSE. it makes no sense!
Educate yourself. The Board of Health has the statutory authority to do this. Talk to lawyers and doctors before you try to speak.
BoH’s decision is a responsible one. Wearing a mask is a small inconvenience to keep our community safe. And especially safe from adults (such as yourself) who think they have the right not to wear a mask.
I think the state should mandate vaccines so that we can protect everyone who is vulnerable, including out children, elderly and the sick.
750,000 cases and 18,000 deaths.
As human beings we have a moral obligation to protect the vulnerable among us – especially children who cannot get vaccinated yet.
I don’t understand why you believe your right to chose how you live trumps that. I just don’t understand.
Thank you for this letter. It is a rare piece of sanity I have seen in the past year in our City of West Cambridge formerly known as Watertown.
For those of you calling for MORE masks….You are the EXACT same people who will back internment camps for your fellow citizens that will inevitably become extermination camps. You trust corrupt billionaires and then corrupt politicians who become multi millionaires in 2 years on a salary of 175k.
Oh my neighbors…
Don’t twist your arms while patting yourselves on the back while you signal your virtue to the world.
Internment camps. Extermination camps. Politicians who magically make millions. Stop it. It’s absurd talk.
My observations of Watertown residents is they wear their mask. Most of them. And I’m super proud of them. Yet, an elderly lady in Star Market came in yelling greetings to all without a mask. Others in the store didn’t wear masks. Because there are folks who feel it’s their own prerogative whether they do or don’t act in accordance to community safety and connection and act like children rebelling against safety for all, a mandate is in place for the those of us who do.
Can you believe that elderly woman would dare to not wear that mask you demand of her? How will we ensure we save her life!?! We wear the mask to show her and people like her that we support them and want them to live. How dare she.
She probably just wanted attention. Saw a guy without a mask at a convenience store this strutting around like a peacock, and when other customers ignored him, he started talking at the top of his lungs, saying was a nice day and good to be alive. And people still ignored him. When someone goes to that much effort, you know the elevator doesn’t go all the way up. Lame.
It used to be that adults used to protect the kids. Now we want the kids to protect the adults. Elan is 100 percent right.
You folks also seem to conveniently gloss over the idea that there is a real difference between anti-mask and anti-mandate. Being anti-mask means you don’t want masks on anyone. Being anti-mandate means that you as an adult get to choose whether you or your kid get to wear a mask. Your body, your choice.
And I find the phrase ‘I follow the science’ that many people who want to force masks use to be extremely arrogant. It assumes that the other side is stupid, that they are ‘against science’. I know the game. It’s old and tired.
For those of you who believe in freedom and adulthood; for those of you who are against the collectivist crap, get up off the couch and stop watching the mainstream media, stop being scared and speak up! There are many of us out there.
Both you and Elan seem to be unable (or unwilling?) to grasp basic facts.
It’s NOT ” your body your choice” when you can kill others.
If it was just you that was at risk, we might well say, “OK, it’s dumb, but it’s their life”. But that’s just not the way this works.
The COVID situation is basically the same as cigarette smoking: we have rules against smoking cigarettes in enclosed spaces because the rest of us shouldn’t have to breathe in the dangerous stuff you exhale.
And people like you are more likely to be carrying COVID, because you don’t believe in the precautions. All in all, you’re a menace to others’ health.
This is not about your right to take risks with your health. It is about not getting other people sick. Those who refuse the vaccine and those who refuse to wear masks are fueling a public health crisis that is making people sick. It’s not about your right to do what you want. It’s about others’ right not to unnecessarily be made sick by you.
Believe me, I am not a blind follower of rules. But I stop at red lights. Why? Because I don’t want to get killed and I don’t want to kill anyone else. I also wear a mask because I don’t want to get sick and I don’t want to make anyone else sick. It’s not about freedom–it’s about being duly cautious because you care about others.
I would add, keeping the COVID cases lower and not overwhelming our health system. This affects many others who do not have COVID and are also in need of ICU or other services which may not be available with the increase in COVID cases.(as seen in other states currently and in the past NE)
That piece of cloth is so disruptive to your life. Your concern for others is so low that it’s that upsetting to you. And you pretend not to understand that people can’t eat or drink wearing a mask.
Cloth masks do not work, educate yourself please.
Not true:
https://medical.mit.edu/covid-19-updates/2020/07/do-cloth-masks-work
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-mask/art-20485449
I support this 100%! While we’re at it let’s ban cars, cigarettes, cheeseburgers, soda and swimming pools from Watertown. I’m sure the public health board has the authority to do that, and even if it doesn’t – shut up – its for your own good!
And this relates to the pandemic how? I’ll wait…
I agree with Elan! This is all about control and not science or common sense.
Mass. has one of the highest vaccination rates in the US, read the #’s, children are rarely getting the virus and when the do it’s a case of the sniffles. The only people in hospitals are elderly and very unhealthy people. These people should take care extra precautions as they would any sickness. Let the rest of us get back to normal.
President Biden announced yesterday that all employers with more than 100 workers will be forced to either require employees to have coronavirus vaccinations or test unvaccinated employees weekly, despite his and the White House statements in July that such mandates were “not the role” of the federal government. So who do you believe?
Biden also says he is mandating all federal workers and contractors to be vaccinated or they won’t get paid. Why wouldn’t he mandate that for people on social security, welfare and other federal assistance? Why don’t we close the southern border to control the virus from getting in? Now we have the South American variant (Lambda) that is said to be worse than the Delta variant. It makes no sense.
Masks and vaccinations should be personal decision for people and businesses. It’s really not that complicated.
It’s not complicated. Scientists and doctors say to wear them. The rest is nonsense.