Democracy in the Omaha Mask Ordinance

Aimee Melton, Brinker Harding and Don Rowe Defend Freedom

There is a large battle mounting over masks which merely amounts to a flag-football controversy but the battle is real. The City Council responded to the Douglas County Health Director in creating a City ordinance for a mask mandate for COVID. Dr. Adi Pour said she had no legal ability to do so.

So the City Council, with the input from the public, created a mask ordinance. This section of the law should take precedent. But Dr. Huse, the County Health Director has decided otherwise. I still cannot figure how the County official can be given power in the City of which they do not have such capacity in the County. The fact the mandate is only for Omaha and not the County exposes numerous problems with the law.

As you may know, Council members Aimee Melton, Brinker Harding and Don Rowe provided an affidavit to the State’s challenge of the Dr. Huse’s mask edict. This effort is expensive. The Council members have created a fund to pay for their entry, called Omaha Defenders of Freedom. You can donate to their fund at Five Points Bank, 8820 Arbor St, Omaha, NE 68124. If you have questions on how to donate, call the bank at 402-827-8941. The Council members are not just defending freedom but an informed public and the democratic process.

What stuns me about the debate about masks is how polarizing it has become as well as idiotic. When the first mask mandate came about, you learned someone was going to take issue with you for not wearing the mask above your nose. Now, with about 70 percent of people vaccinated, no one seems to care.

There was much pressure for masks. By January 5th, Dr. Huse was under intense pressure to put forth a mask mandate. Yet the increasing number of cases also impacted local organizations which were polarized over masks. How can you have a meeting when half the members refuse to wear a mask and the other half refuse to show up unless everyone wears a mask? But many demanded masks.

Unfortunately, because the Douglas County Commissioners never put forth a mask mandate, they are a drift as to how controversial and polarizing Dr. Huse’s undemocratic edict is. I have been trying to explain it to them. At the same time, more evidence comes out showing masks do not work. Ian Miller recently came out with his book: Unmasked: The Global Failure of COVID Mask Mandates.

The center piece of why COVID mitigation fails is the failure to understand what an airborne virus is. You can walk in to a public bathroom, be there for 5 minutes and walk out with an airborne infection from someone who was in there over an hour ago. Ultra violet lights from the sun kill viruses, but restrooms and bathrooms rarely provide such sunshine. Public bathrooms have little circulating air and the door is often closed making the space confining. All good for the virus, but not for the many people using it, especially if they have a vitamin D deficiency contributing to immune issues.

What would work better, is mass temperature checks. Often, COVID causes fever and if there was widespread scanners, COVID would be contained, yet, this is not done. People will take action if their mere headache is accompanied by a fever yet people are denied knowing. COVID breakthrough cases increase and temperature scanners would expose it, but no such action takes place.  Since the CDC has not approved such measure, no one tries it. So the pandemic continues.