AG SCHMITT LAWSUIT AGAINST THE MASK MANDATE

Mayor Jones and Councilman Page: Please consider filing a lawsuit against the state of Missouri.

Before I start on the filing, let’s just refresh a minute on how Governor Parson has been handling the pandemic:

He never instituted a state-wide mask mandate, did not follow CDC guidelines, downplayed the seriousness of the virus and the pandemic, directed resources at rural areas, particularly his constituent base, did not effectively promote the vaccinations or handle distribution well (horribly, in fact!), and encouraged dropping mask mandates to promote the vaccine, which did not work, especially among his base. 

Parson cancelled unemployment (with a lie, and he deserves to be sued for robbing the state of federal money, too) and all it did was increase the unemployment rate for the first time since April of 2020. He pushed re-opening too soon, and this state is one of the sickest in the nation.

(And let's not forget all the covid money Parson is hoarding until next year, refusing to fund voter approved Medicaid expansion, robbing our healthcare industry of 1.1 billion in federal funds over two years. )

And Schmitt seems to forget that many of these rural areas rely on St. Louis city and county for jobs and services (like respirators), and for deliveries and commerce from St. Louis city and county.

We have borne the brunt covid-19 cases because we are the commercial center of the state. (Missouri could not survive without St. Louis or Kansas City.)

The filing:

Schmitt’s statistics are interesting. He cherry picks from a number of sources and I hope the city and county legal teams check the numbers and data carefully. (See Lines 22 onward- I haven’t finished yet because it’s so hilarious!) However, the disparities aren't that great, regardless of the cherry pickins.

I don’t know how careful he is about his percentages, but I would also look at each county he is citing and see when they were offered the vaccine, how many people in the town remained working and where, etc.

BECAUSE ST. LOUIS NEVER SHUT DOWN.

And those isolated areas where people were off work and schools were closed are basically pre-built bubbles. (The cumulative death rates aren’t that much better, anyhow, and if you factor in the bubble I bet it’s nothing.)

Also, it could be argued that Missouri had the most lax statewide response, never had a state wide mask mandate, and now the rural counties are exploding with cases, and their worst cases are transported to St. Louis area hospitals. (What would this state do without it’s “evil blue cities”?) I think this is so obvious the court should simply toss the whole filing.

The St. Louis city and county mask mandates are not the problem. By lifting it all of the insane anti-vaxxers started spreading the delta variant.

We need a mask mandate again, and it needs to be statewide.