The number of COVID-19 cases in the county was rising sharply, Scott Levy, chief medical officer at one of Bucks County’s hospitals, tried to tell the crowd at the Aug. 31 meeting of the Central Bucks School Board amid a debate over school mask mandates.
“We’ve gone from 10 cases a week diagnosed at Doylestown Hospital first week of July,” he began.
The crowd howled.
…. “to 100, 100 cases a week, “ he continued. “Children could transmit to adults, and the adults …”
Levy never was able to finish his statement over the crowd’s hearty disapproval.
The person who spoke before him, Kayla Ottey, who identified herself as a pediatric nurse-practitioner and a parent of a 7 year old, received a warmer response. She warned of developmental delays, psychological and physiological harm, even suicide stemming from mandates requiring children to wear protective masks.
“Maybe I am wrong,” said Ottey, 31, who works at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and said in an interview later that mask mandates cause trauma to children. “And I will never say that I’m right, but with what facts that I have in front of me, and what I’m seeing, and what I experienced, and what I’ve gone through in the last 18 months, that’s my truth.”
In fact, scientific evidence indicates masks are preventing disease from spreading, at no risk to wearers.
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