Pocono Record Town Hall: Readers split on whether to impose new COVID mitigations

In last week's Town Hall prompt, we asked for your thoughts on whether or not Governor Tom Wolf should step in more to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The same question was asked via online poll.

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Pennsylvanians chose to curb Wolf's emergency powers during the May, 2021 primary referendum. The vote will limit emergency declarations to 21 days and require a majority vote by the legislature to extend them. That vote also empowers state lawmakers to remove the governor's disaster declarations with a two-thirds vote.

Other than that, Wolf still retains the power to impose things like mask mandates when he sees fit. His most recent mask mandate in Pa. schools was vacated by the state supreme court in December.

After the poll closed on Thursday, we received 267 responses, with 116 of those coming from the same IP address. Even if we remove those votes, the majority of you still voted "no". Without the person that voted 116 times, we had 85 out of 151 people vote against new COVID restrictions in PA (56.29% of the vote). Sixty six of you voted "yes", for 43.71% of the vote.

Here's what those of you that wrote in had to say.

Wishing Wolf would step in

My children are enrolled in the Delaware Valley School District where masks are currently optional, social distancing is a joke, vaccination rates are abysmal compared to other areas, kids are as close as 3 to a seat on the busses, sanitation efforts have faded back to almost pre-pandemic levels, and I’m told roughly 30% of the staff has been infected.

Teachers are burnt out and afraid, parents are at each others’ necks, at least one student has reportedly been in the ICU for COVID, two employees of the bus company that transports our kids have passed away, and one private duty nurse that worked in the school as well… all from COVID.

Our positive rate numbers are skyrocketing due to the lack of safety measures and the highly transmissible variants running through the county.

The school board’s answer to this was to notify parents that they would end contact tracing this month as well. One more rollback. The school board is currently being sued by parents, not for money, but literally begging them to implement basic safety measures for our kids and the staff of the school, measures which they have rolled back at every available point.

We as parents had collectively begged the local government and health department as well as the board of education to enforce the mask mandate when it was in effect, which the school saw fit to allow parents to exempt their kids from with nothing more than a note from mommy. We were let down by the Governor who did nothing, the DOH who did nothing, and the DOE who did nothing.

Then, finally, we were let down by the State Supreme Court who ended the DOH mask mandate, further endangering our county by taking away the simplest of mitigation efforts.

Do I think it’s time to bring back mitigation efforts? Absolutely. Please do whatever you can to help those of us struggling in areas like this where the virus is running rampant and killing people. Our best interests as a society lie in doing what we can to protect one another during this pandemic, and the numbers speak for themselves, we were safer in 2020 with all the mitigation efforts applied and enforced as much as possible. People are dying in my community and it’s within the Governor’s power to stop that. Yes, I wish he would.

Rob Galvin, Dingmans Ferry

Related: Pa. voters choose to strip Gov. Tom Wolf's emergency powers

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How is COVID any different from measles, whooping cough?

It amazes me that people are actually crying about their 'freedom' while opposing vaccines and wearing masks and exposing others to this virus.

It isn't just about them. What about my freedom to not get infected with this thing?

My husband nearly died from a flu shot and was told not to get vaccinated. He went out twice a week— grocery shopping and to watch his granddaughter bowl. He social distanced and wore a mask. He is now hospitalized with COVID.

It's established that masking, vaccines and social distance are not 100% guaranteed. The absence of any of these make it more likely than not that you will get it and spread it.

My experience has been that if you are a child going to a public school, the list of required immunizations is very long. Do schools no longer require vaccines for mumps, measles, chicken pox and whooping cough? How is COVID any different?

If you think masks and vaccines are too much, go to youtube.com/watch?v=WfRJEm96Lgo. About six minutes in is the solution to which I refer. If you can't be bothered, I'll put it in a nutshell. In 1665, plague was raging in England. In London, if you had it, you and your family were confined in your house and authorities would padlock your doors and windows so you could not leave your house.

At the end of 40 days, the lock would be removed and anyone left alive would be allowed to leave the house.

Masks and vaccines seem to be a much gentler way of dealing with today's plague.

L.W.T., Bushkill

Wolf has his hands tied

As of mid-January, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is taking a "softer" approach to COVID-19 mitigations.

That is, fewer mandates and more local control.

The "softer" mitigation approach by Gov. Wolf is partially due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 causing milder symptoms than previous variants, according to the World Health Organization.

But another reason for Wolf's "softer" approach is his loss of some authority after pushback from Republican lawmakers this past June.

During the COVID pandemic Gov. Wolf imposed heavy measures in the attempt to halt the spread of the disease, such as closed businesses and stay-at-home orders.

Hence, the pushback in June from the Republican controlled legislature terminating Gov. Wolf's COVID-19 emergency disaster declaration. And thus, giving more authority of that emergency management over to the General Assembly.

Gov. Wolf has his political hands tied. He doesn't have the full authority to impose his gubernatorial will, on the businesses and people of Pennsylvania. Sometimes "two heads are better than one."

There is further reason for less crackdown on freedom of movement statewide.

Natural immunity. I suggest for anyone who dismisses natural immunity as not important, to watch Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky square off with Xavier Bacerra, current Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, on mandatory vaccinations of COVID-19, as prescribed by HHS Secretary Bacerra.

Keep in mind that Rand Paul is an MD and Bacerra has no medical or scientific background. Doctor and Senator Rand Paul describes how natural immunity occurs with all sorts of diseases; such as smallpox, measles and COVID-19. Rand Paul calls out Bacerra for ignoring the rights of those with acquired natural immunity to refuse the mandatory vaccination.

Something else to add. For decades I have followed precautions and have avoided getting the flu (and never had a flu shot). It's the usual recommendations. Avoid touching the face and plenty of washing hands. I drove a New Jersey Transit commuter bus in the populous Northeast New Jersey for 24 years and only caught a minor cold a few times. That means I made a mistake each of those few times. It's the same with COVID. All these COVID cases means people are making a lot of mistakes when out in public or at home. COVID cases would be dramatically reduced with the precautionary due diligence.

Dan Pryor, Belvidere, N.J.

Any restrictions at this point would be futile

It might be helpful if Wolf would initiate some restrictions to attempt to slow the spread of Omicron, but the effort would be futile. Those who don't 'believe' in the virus would simply cry 'tyranny' and ignore the recommendations.

There is a huge, national effort underway to undermine the medical and government officials who advise us on safe health practices.

Visit a local school board meeting, and you will hear the protests of the Nationally organized, well-funded groups such as "Moms for Liberty" and "Mothers for Freedom", who profess that masks are harmful to children, that masking and vaccination requests are "Socialistic" and "Marxist". There are many in the general public who hold the same views, thanks to entertainment pundits such as Tucker Carlson, whose only goal is to undermine peoples' faith in our government, or in any type of scientific authority.

So no, mandates are no longer an option. We who still believe in science will have to maintain our own safety protocols, and try to avoid the 'Anti' people.

Linda Zak, Saylorsburg

Pocono Record Town Halls feature local readers responding to a written prompt, and voting in a poll on a hot topic. Look for our editor's response, and next week's prompt, in our Sunday paper. Learn more by heading to PoconoRecord.com.

This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: Town Hall: Readers split on whether to impose new COVID mitigations