Incompetence can’t be masked. And yet, that’s exactly what Democrats in St. Louis and its associated county are attempting to do in reinstating a mask mandate not just for the unvaccinated, but also for people who are fully vaccinated and for children over the age of 5.
This is an arbitrary order rather than a suggestion or helpful guidance, and it’s not based on sound facts and data but on utter nonsense. Despite having the most restrictive and unconstitutional mask orders in Missouri until May, St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis suffered some of the state’s highest COVID-19 case rates and death rates.
We know that the science has told us that there’s very little risk of infection or serious illness for those who have been fully vaccinated. City vaccination rates continue to lag behind the statewide average, however, and that’s where the mayor and city health officials need to be doubling and redoubling their efforts.
What we also know is that St. Louis’s officials are failing to address another serious health threat, the epidemic of violent crime. The mask mandate may be intended as a diversion, but it can’t hide the fact that the city, already reeling from a drastic violent crime spike in 2020, now has one of the highest murder rates in the entire nation. The mask mandate follows just weeks after four of the city’s children were shot within an eight-hour time span in three separate incidents. The city is such a basket case that just days ago, a judge dismissed a murder case because the prosecutor repeatedly didn’t show up to court.
Instead of helping the St. Louis Police Department patrol the streets, Mayor Tishaura Jones wants to defund them, a bizarre position for someone trying to lead a city in the grips of an out-of-control crime wave. The mayor wants to score political points, but that rings hollow when her policies would only add fuel to the fire of a skyrocketing murder rate. More than 3,000 St. Louis residents moved away in 2020, and that trend will only continue if Jones successfully defunds the police. Efforts to impose a mask mandate feel like a politically contrived stunt designed to deflect attention away from the city’s struggles.
Instead of ramping up the city’s vaccination efforts, Jones and St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page are treating the citizens of St. Louis like subjects, not free people. The city’s mask mandate doesn’t explain how the order will decrease coronavirus cases or increase the vaccination rate and is a clear example of unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious government action.
If the mandate was grounded in science, it might make sense, but it is based on fiction. For example, the city’s order requires children over the age of 5 to wear masks in schools, even though scientific evidence from Johns Hopkins University shows that children rarely die, or even get sick, from the virus. They’re not even frequent carriers of the disease. The order also fails to define terms such as “dwelling” or what health conditions are exempt from mask-wearing.
Poorly written mandates add to the growing public distrust of information about the pandemic and vaccines. The more overreaching bureaucrats try to gain control, the more that the average person begins to tune out all information about the pandemic. If municipalities such as the county and the city of St. Louis continue to cry wolf, even their most at-risk citizens will stop listening.
Fortunately, many St. Louis County residents see right through this charade and spoke loudly in defense of their personal liberties. That was reflected in a 5-2 vote on July 27 by the St. Louis County Council to overturn the mandate imposed by Page. Page contends that the order remains in place and the city’s order remains in effect. But this failure to recognize reality is unsurprising.
St. Louis officials are desperately trying to mask the truth of their failures through this new masking mandate. Instead of addressing a rising crime wave and stagnating vaccination rates, Jones is pushing a poorly written and ultimately ineffective mandate. We need to follow the science and focus on what matters; if St. Louis County and City officials continue to follow their tried-and-failed path, history will remember them for inflicting unnecessary suffering on their constituents. And if officials are truly sincere about protecting children from harm, they should get serious about funding the police.
Eric Schmitt is the attorney general for the state of Missouri and a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.
