False statements in commissioners’ resolution

To the Editor;

I am writing in response to the Piscataquis County Commissioners resolution of protest to Gov. Mills. As a medical doctor, I read the document with dismay as it contains inaccurate information regarding COVID-19. Specifically, that face coverings worsen the pandemic by causing respiratory disease and pneumonia and that they do not decrease the spread of the illness.

These statements are false. There is evidence in well respected medical journals that support the use of facemasks during this pandemic to mitigate spread of the disease and there is no evidence they cause pneumonia. One of the factors that has decreased the rate of the flu this season by 98 percent has been facemask use and social distancing. I question where the authors obtained the information that they stated backed their statements and caution that the public should be vigilant about the proliferation of scientific disinformation from less than reputable sources.

The resolution states that because the case rate is low in Piscataquis, it justifies the call to end all restrictions. While the case rate has been low, it is increasing and a newly identified more highly contagious variant of COVID-19 is rapidly spreading throughout the U.S. which makes what we can do as citizens to slow the spread all the more important.

Lastly, the authors refer to COVID-19 as the Wuhan virus. This is not in keeping with WHO modern nomenclature which is to specifically not use the country of origin in naming new viruses and thus derogatory associations of a disease with a people or country.

The authors rightly point out the economic and psychological hardship the pandemic has brought to the citizens of Piscataquis but how much worse that hardship could be if we let a virus that appears to becoming more contagious run amok through our communities, collapse our health care system and sicken our essential workers. In the next few months, it is critical that we each do our part to prevent that from occurring.

Wendy Love MD

Topsham