Governor Walz's "One-Size-Fits-All" Mask Mandate is Wrong for Minnesota

Statewide Mask Mandate Not Backed by Science

News provided by

Citizens' Council for Health Freedom

Jul 22, 2020, 17:30 ET

ST. PAUL, Minn., July 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Citizens' Council for Health Freedom (CCHF) expresses its strong opposition to Executive Order 20-81, which imposes a statewide mask mandate on all Minnesota residents starting on July 25, and releases the following statement from its president and co-founder, Twila Brase, RN, PHN.

"We are greatly disappointed in Governor Walz today for imposing face masks on all Minnesotans. The idea that wearing a face mask prevents the spread of COVID-19 is false and not backed by scientific data."

"Even Dr. Michael Osterholm, former interim director of the CDC and top infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, said in response to the CDC's recent support for masks: 'Never before in my 45 year career have I seen such a far-reaching public recommendation issued by any governmental agency without a single source of data or information to support it.'"

"The fear-mongering generated by mask mandates is irresponsible. At a time when all the key statistics, deaths and hospitalizations, have been steadily improving, the governor has suddenly decided to lock 5.6 million Minnesotans behind masks as though the stats say everything is getting worse. The governor himself said on July 14 that it would be hard to make the case for masks with fewer hospitalizations, fewer ICU patients and fewer deaths. And yet he did, despite no scientific data to support it."

"As the Governor continues to move the flatten-the-curve goalposts from the achievable 'slow the spread' to the unachievable 'stop the virus,' Minnesotans are being put needlessly at risk. This mask mandate will expose Minnesotans to self- and cross-contamination, headaches, difficulty breathing, skin conditions, and a false sense of security that is likely to put them in harm's way, as the World Health Organization warns."

CCHF has worked in its home state of Minnesota and at the national level for more than 20 years to protect health care choices, individualized patient care, and medical and genetic privacy rights.

Twila Brase, RN, PHN has been named by Modern Healthcare as one of the "100 Most Powerful People in Health Care." She is the host of the national daily Health Freedom Minute radio program and the author of the eight-time award-winning book, "Big Brother in the Exam Room: The Dangerous Truth About Electronic Health Records.

SOURCE Citizens' Council for Health Freedom