Beverly Health Board Pulls Vaccine Order, Abandons Mask Meeting
BEVERLY, MA — A proposed coronavirus vaccination order to enter Beverly businesses was pulled from the agenda and the Beverly Board of Health subsequently abandoned a special meeting to discuss reimposing an indoor mask mandate after the virtual meeting was overrun by vocal opponents of further restrictions Tuesday afternoon.
"The Board of Health attempted to conduct a public meeting today to consider a proposed indoor mask mandate order," the city said in a statement to Patch about two hours after the Board of Health sent the official meeting to a recess and never returned to the Google Meet session. "When it became clear that Board members could not facilitate their needed discussion and deliberation, they adjourned the meeting.
"We anticipate the Board will schedule another meeting in the near future for the purpose of considering the indoor mask mandate order."
The Beverly Board of Health called the special meeting with both a business-entry vaccination order and a mask mandate for indoor public spaces on the agenda amid the recent surge in coronavirus cases.
But Board of Health member William Alpine said at the outset of the meeting that the vaccine order was being removed from the agenda for Tuesday's meeting and only the mask mandate would be discussed and considered for a possible vote.
Board of Health members then attempted to begin the discussion on the mask mandate but sent the meeting to recess after about 15 minutes when more than 350 people flooded the virtual meeting with frequent interruptions and there was no mechanism to mute those not scheduled to speak.
More than 20 minutes after the Board of Health members and other officials left the remote session, more than 250 people remained on the call organizing and discussing strategies to oppose future mandates.
The meeting abruptly disconnected at 4:02 p.m. with more than 200 people still in the virtual meeting room and the Board of Health members still technically in a recess.
The meeting was to include virus case count and hospital capacity updates from medical experts at Beverly Hospital, but they never got a chance to speak.
The meeting meltdown came one day after the Marblehead Board of Health hastily conducted a unanimous vote to reinstate that town's mask mandate over the vocal objections of meeting viewers who were not able to be muted. The Marblehead Board of Health did not allow public comment in that meeting with the mask order going into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday.
Last Wednesday, the Salem Board of Health voted to impose a vaccination order for entry into service businesses such as bars, restaurants, gyms, fitness centers and other entertainment venues.
Salem did not allow public comment at that meeting and had a Zoom mechanism where officials could control who was allowed to speak and when. The Salem Board of Health did allow public comment at a previous discussion on potential mask and vaccine requirements for businesses.
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
This article originally appeared on the Beverly Patch
