Nearly 100 anti-mask protesters showed up Thursday at a Utah county meeting to oppose mask mandates for children when the school reopens, forcing officials to reschedule a vote on the rule.
Before the vote, Utah County Commissioner Bill Lee addressed a crowd of unmasked protesters, removing his mask to applaud and applaud. Lee said that while he supports the use of a mask to protect himself against the coronavirus, he does not support a mandate from Governor Gary Herbert. That rule would require students in K-12 schools to wear masks in the classroom and on school buses once the school reopens.
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Thursday’s vote was to ask the Utah County Health Department to grant the county “a compassionate exemption from the one-mask-for-everyone mandate in Utah County public schools.”
After protesters ignored the rules of social distancing and disobeyed the mask mandates inside the Utah County Administration Building, County Commission Chairman Tanner Ainge made a motion to reschedule the meeting. Ainge said the meeting violated several public health directives in the state and county.
“Lee organized that for the political theater and put the entire room at risk by ignoring the guidelines of the health department,” Ainge said.
Protesters booed Ainge and his movement, but it went 2-1. The commission did not set a new date for the vote, but said they are planning to hold it virtually.
Those against wearing a mask have said the mandates are unconstitutional. Others said they are ineffective in stopping the spread of COVID-19, despite health officials and experts showing otherwise.
The governor’s mandate, which he announced on July 9, was issued with the guidance of medical officials who told the commission that hospitalization rates in Utah county are increasing, threatening to overwhelm the capacity of beds in local hospitals. .
“Since Memorial Day, we have been climbing rapidly,” Tracy Hill, medical director of Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, told the commission last week. “We are now averaging about 100 new people with positive results per day.” And with that, our hospitalizations … have been increasing. “
Hill said the data projects that if the numbers continue to increase through August, “we will extend our ability to care for these people.”
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“Right now, we are in very good shape,” he said. That said, if this increase continues at the rate we are currently at, we could be … overwhelmed. “
