Broken Arrow leaders disappointingly sided with misinformation and emotional politics last week by again refusing to require people in public places to wear face masks.
A largely anti-mask crowd addressed the Broken Arrow City Council Tuesday, deriding a proposed mask mandate and dismissing a separate resolution that merely encouraged face coverings.
Broken Arrow infection trends are not improving, and outspoken opponents to basic public health prevention measures are ignoring the evidence.
Right now, Oklahoma leads the nation in test positivity and hospitals are at capacity. Broken Arrow is on the leading edge of the state’s worsening pandemic.
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Broken Arrow has higher rates of infections and deaths from COVID-19 than the city of Tulsa, which has a mask ordinance. The virus doesn’t stop at the city limits, but its spread can be slowed through commonsense hygiene: face masks, limiting social exposure and hand-washing.
Communities that have mask mandates have significantly lower infection rates, according to state public health reports and a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This is the second time Broken Arrow leaders had a chance to do the right thing and didn’t. In November, the Broken Arrow Council voted down a non-binding resolution to advocate mask wearing. The meeting allowed residents, and at least one councilor, to repeat disproven information and conspiracy theories.
That meeting set an embarrassing low bar. Since then, Broken Arrow ZIP codes have slipped into “extreme risk” categories that required a deeper shade of red on heat maps tracking spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The Tulsa metro region has a shared health and hospital network. Cities not doing their part to stem the spread are contributing to the problem.
Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Norman, and other local suburban cities have adopted mask mandates as COVID-19 flares throughout their communities.
The federal government’s vaccine distribution has been slow and laborious. Prevention measures must be taken until a herd immunity level of vaccinations has been reached.
Broken Arrow residents and their municipal neighbors deserve better. They deserve leaders who will stand up to the science deniers and make the right, even if politically unpopular, decision.
To do otherwise only endangers Oklahomans and exacerbates the pandemic.
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