Gloucester Threatens to Follow Boston, Danvers, Salem, and Others Imposing Mandates…

So we are asking you to PLEASE PLEASE email and write to the members of the Board of Health and tell them to pass an ADVISORY and not a mandate!! This perpetual cycle will not end until we say no more!! Below you will find members of the BOH’s email addresses, and personal addresses. These were posted on the Board of Health/Health Department site as their contact information. I recommend emailing them… IN ADDITION – I would send them written communication. But all letters need to be sent within the next couple of days (if in Gloucester) to make it prior to the vote. For those that do not feel like writing their own letter, we have also included a template that you can copy and paste and make your own. (Thank State Committeewoman Amanda Orlando for that one!!)

I also encourage you to join us for the Board of Health meeting Jan 6th at 5:30 PM via Zoom. They have yet to post the link so we will be sending up a follow up email on how to attend. A protest is also being discussed so keep an eye out for details on that. In the meantime this is the most important thing to be focusing on. Don’t want mandates? Show them you don’t want mandates!! I thank you all in advance for your help!!

Joe Rosa: jrosa@gloucester-ma.gov

Don Ganim: dganim@gloucester-ma.gov

Fred Cowan: fcowan@gloucester-ma.gov

Claudia Schweitzer: cschweitzer@gloucester-ma.gov

Eric Kaplan: ekaplan@gloucester-ma.gov

Max Schenk: mschenk@gloucester-ma.gov

healthdepartment@gloucester-ma.gov

Joanne Senos: jsenos@gloucester-ma.gov

Where to mail your letters:

Board of Health Members,

I’m writing to you to strongly express my opposition to any more mandates in this city. I’m aware that you are continuing to debate whether to re-institute a mask mandate in Gloucester. There are several reasons to which I object to this:

1. When we had no vaccines or treatments for Covid, it was understandable why communities were asking people to protect the spread by wearing a mask. That is no longer the case. Over 80% of our community is vaccinated(which was pushed hard by each of you as the “solution” to the spread). Do the vaccinations no longer matter? Have you decided that they aren’t the solution anymore? Voting to reinstate a mask mandate essentially nullifies all of the “medical” and “scientific” narrative that the vaccines were the correct course to stop the spread.

2. Wearing a mask is unhealthy, particularly for children. Children are sitting in dirty cloth masks for hours a day, breathing in their own carbon dioxide. They are asked to exercise and play sports in masks, preventing them from freely breathing while exerting themselves. They are having their natural immune systems suppressed by not breathing fresh air and building antibodies to natural elements in the air. Enough is enough. We need to spend more time focusing on childrens’ health at this point. Any further mandates take us in the wrong direction away from what should be a shared goal.

3. Businesses should not be forced to police their customers. No business struggling to make ends meet wants to police their customers over their personal health care choices. Currently, anyone who wants a vaccination can have one. If that person chooses to wear a mask, that is acceptable too. However, instituting an unnecessary mask mandate only invites frustrated customers and frustrated business owners. Those small businesses in our community have suffered enough without having to be the community’s personal health police.

Last, I respectfully submit to you that the decision you make impacts thousands of Gloucester residents. Some of you have expressed personal fears in the conversations during your meetings. I’m sorry that you are personally fearful,, and I invite you to continue to take steps to protect yourself. If that means you choose to get boosted, wear a mask, or stay home, that is YOUR choice.

However, your personal fears should not dictate the behavior, actions, and choices of the rest of this community.

If you feel the need, you can issue a city wide mask ADVISORY and let people choose for themselves what is best.