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DES MOINES, Iowa, February 12, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Iowa’s Republican Governor Kim Reynolds has lifted the state’s mandate on masks, physical distancing and size limits on gatherings, urging people to make their own decisions about wearing masks and attending gatherings, and to take “reasonable” measures to maintain public health
In a new proclamation signed February 5, and effective February 7, Reynolds allowed people the freedom to take health precautions if they wish to, but without the previous mandates, including enforced physical distancing and mask wearing.
Instead, Reynolds wrote merely to “strongly encourage all vulnerable Iowans, including those with pre-existing medical conditions and those older than 65,” to limit their activities and participation in large gatherings.
The previous proclamation, issued in November, prohibited gatherings of more than 25 people indoors or 100 outdoors, unless all attendees older than two wore a mask, and additionally decreed that a distance of six feet be maintained between individuals or groups in businesses, restaurants, and gyms, as well as other indoor settings.
Reynolds’s latest document does away with such mandates, simply encouraging organizers of gatherings to take “reasonable measures” to safeguard public health.
In place of the previous orders around businesses, Reynolds now writes: “I strongly encourage that all businesses or other employers remaining open with in-person operations, take reasonable measures under the circumstances of each establishment to ensure the health of employees, patrons and members of the public, including social distancing practices, increased hygiene practices, and other public health measures to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 consistent with guidance issued by the Iowa Department of Public Health.”
The governor did not make adherence to “reasonable measures” a requisite for opening businesses. “This section shall not be a basis for closing or taking other enforcement action against a business or other employer absent an additional specific order or directive of the Iowa Department of Public Health,” the proclamation continued.
Her removal of the various restrictions comes shortly after Reynolds signed into law a bill which allowed parents to send their children back to school full time, after schools had been operating a mixture of online and in-person sessions due to COVID restrictions.
Reynolds has faced much backlash from left-wing media in the face of lifting the restrictions. Iowa’s Public Health Association has also attacked the governor, calling her actions “actively detrimental to our pursuit to end the pandemic.”
In a recent video clip shared online, she defended her decision, saying, “Iowans know how to be safe and responsible; our businesses know how to responsibly take care of their customers, and because we remained open and had our economy open, we’re really coming out of COVID in a very strong position.”
In comments made to the Des Moines Register, Iowa Restaurant Association chief Jessica Dunker praised the governor’s actions. The easing of restrictions “may well give us the lift we need to be able to see this thing to the other side,” Dunker said. “Quite frankly, it allows us to go back to doing business at a really critical time.”
Democrat politicians in the state have chosen to ignore Reynolds’s proclamation. They continue to enforce COVID-related measures, such as mask wearing and physical distancing.
Iowa City Democrat Mayor Bruce Teague said that the city’s mask order was still “not impacted” by Reynolds’s latest proclamation, and that “[r]esidents should continue to wear masks in all public spaces within Iowa City in accordance with the City’s order.” Masks are mandated until May 31 in the city.
Des Moines, Iowa’s capital, followed suit, with Democrat Mayor Frank Cownie stating that masks would continue to be required in line with the city’s current restrictions. He called the governor’s decision “confusing,” claiming that it couldn’t “be rationalized with the number of positive cases we continue to see across the state and here in Polk County.”
North Liberty and Coralville have also decided to continue to require masks.
PETITION UPDATE (8/27/2020)
Thank you for continuing to SIGN and SHARE this petition, which asks policymakers at all levels of government to reverse mandatory mask orders within their borders.
Facebook has restored the share link for this petition, saying that the decision to block it was a 'mistake...'
Please share with your Facebook friends, but we should all take heed of this warning: when an organization or individuals have to beg, plead and cajole just to express objective truths, it may be time to start looking for other social networking platforms.
Facebook needs to treat its users with respect, no matter their political persuasion. Moreover, Facebook needs to treat objective reality and facts with more respect.
One-size-fits-all oppressive government mask mandates must stop!
Healthy adults and children should not be forced - by the state - to wear masks when the risk of infection is low and the benefit of wearing a mask is highly questionable.
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PETITION UPDATE (8/25/2020)
Facebook is actively censoring this petition, saying that some people find it 'abusive.'
How anyone could find alternate facts about oppressive mask mandates 'abusive' is incredible...that is, impossible to believe.
This is exactly the kind of censorship which Big Tech is getting a bad reputation for.
The fact that Facebook calls differing opinion and objective reality "abusive" says a lot about Facebook and their agenda to silence reason and logic, not just conservatives and Christians.
But, people are more intelligent than Facebook give them credit for.
And, the more this continues, the more reasonable people will look alternate platforms to share their thoughts and connect with their friends and family. The more that happens, the less revenue Facebook will generate.
All of us have a decision to make, and the time is coming where we might have to tell our Facebook friends that we are moving to another platform.
We are encouraging people to continue SIGNING this petition and SHARING it via other platforms such as Parler and Gab, and to share the link below with your family and friends on Whatsapp, Telegram, Threema and Signal.
Thank you!
________________________________________________________________________________________
One-size-fits-all oppressive government mask mandates must stop!
Healthy adults and children should not be forced - by the state - to wear masks when the risk of infection is low and the benefit of wearing a mask is highly questionable.
Please SIGN this petition which asks policymakers at all levels of government to reverse mandatory mask mandates within their borders.
Public health policies should be based on science and logic, not on the type of political posturing and virtue-signaling which led Joe Biden to recently call for a national mask mandate.
And, public health policies certainly shouldn't lead to a situation where more people could become sick.
But, that is exactly what these mandatory mask mandates are doing.
Here are four inconvenient facts about masks:
1) Masks** are largely ineffective at stopping the transmission of viruses.
The vast majority of masks worn by the public are made from material which cannot filter-out viruses because virus particles are too small to catch or obstruct. Wearing cloth masks to stop a virus is like putting a bee in a bird cage to keep it from flying away.
Wearing a mask for long periods of time ensures that the wearer has a warm and moist receptacle around his or her mouth, on which viruses and bacteria can land and accumulate.
Thus, masks are actually likely to have little effect in stopping the spread of COVID-19 acting as a barrier, but could actually make things worse acting as a receptacle.
2) Mandates which call for masks to be worn outdoors are both absurd and oppressive.
3) There are clearly documented hazards of wearing masks for long periods of time.
4) And, since school is on everyone's mind...
Notwithstanding the above information on the ineffectiveness of most masks against viruses, we don't know if asymptomatic children can even transmit the virus.
But, it was a reported in an article in the July 21, 2020 Uk Times that: "There has been no recorded case of a teacher catching the coronavirus from a pupil anywhere in the world, according to one of the UK government's leading scientific advisers."
And, we also know that children are extremely unlikely to get seriously ill or die from COVID infections. In any case, children cannot possibly be expected to wear a mask properly in a way that would cut transmission.
There are still a lot of unknowns about COVID-19, but we have grown in our understanding of this disease since the beginning of the crisis.
The knowledge we have gained should allow government and health authorities to make more nuanced policies than the current one-size-fits-all mask mandates.
Where are the legislative hearings in county commissions, and state, provincial or federal legislatures before these drastic actions are mandated? Where are the open and transparent debates among experts that provide our representatives with the necessary information to make good policy decisions?
The real pandemic is the panic and the resulting tyranny that is being caused by dictatorial governors, corporate media and the monopolistic Big Tech.
The truth is that COVID-19 is like a bad cold for most people; this is not ebola or the plague.
Of course, the very elderly and those with serious health conditions should take precautions or be quarantined, but the rest of society should begin the long process of returning to normality.
The frenzy to force everyone to wear a mask, at all times, has gone beyond all comprehension, and goes against science and logic.
Please SIGN this petition which asks policymakers at all levels of government to reverse any mandatory mask order within the borders of their county, state, province, or country.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Explosion in mandatory masking isn’t driven by science, but fear', PART I - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/explosion-in-mandatory-masking-isnt-driven-by-science-but-fear
'Explosion in mandatory masking isn’t driven by science, but fear', PART II - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/explosion-in-mandatory-masking-isnt-driven-by-science-but-fear-part-ii
OSHA Document on Surgical Masks and Respirators stating that surgical masks do NOT prevent airborne particles (e.g. viruses) from being inhaled - https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3219.pdf
'PETER HITCHENS: Face masks turn us into voiceless submissives - and it’s not science forcing us to wear them, it’s politics' - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8537489/PETER-HITCHENS-Face-masks-turn-voiceless-submissives.html
**Here, we are referring to the masks worn by the vast majority of the public, not to specialist masks or respirator-type masks.
***Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
In contrast to the Democrat politician’s reliance upon masks, numerous physicians have warned that masks do not have an effect in preventing the spread of COVID-19. America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLD) have called for the use of reason in understanding the effect which masks have in preventing a virus which is “1/1000 the size of a hair.”
Dr. Simone Gold of AFLD declared that masks were “completely irrelevant to blocking” COVID-19. She warned that masks had become a political talisman, saying that if people researched themselves, they would “discover that prior to masks becoming political in March 2020, there was never even an attempt at a pretense that masks, let alone bandanas, stop a virus. It’s a complete fabrication. A virus is 1/1000 the size of a hair.”
In November, a Danish peer reviewed study found that there was no “statistically significant” difference in cases of the virus, between those who wore masks, and those who did not.
Recently, videos have been released clearly demonstrating the manner in which vapor can easily pass through the layers of a mask. Masks lead to a “false sense of security,” said Chad Roy in the video.