BRATTLEBORO — Two months after lifting a yearlong Covid-19 mask order, this town’s selectboard — learning of recent “substantial” local transmission of the virus — has voted to become one of the first Vermont communities to again call for face coverings inside public spaces.
“I’m very worried about the fall and winter — what’s going to happen if this is where we are in the summer?” Chair Elizabeth McLoughlin said at a hastily scheduled meeting Tuesday night.
The selectboard had unanimously adopted the first mask order in the pre-vaccine spring of 2020 after expressing concern the state was then requiring masks for employees, but only recommending them for everyone else.
“Wearing a face covering is an important act we can do in an effort to protect others from an infection that we may not even know we have,” the initial local emergency order read, in part.
Brattleboro’s decision stood until this June, when the selectboard — seeing local Covid-19 cases fall from 17 a week to 3 — voted to follow updated federal and state rules that dropped mask requirements for fully vaccinated people.
At the time, selectboard member Jessica Gelter conducted a Facebook poll and found a majority of local respondents — headed by parents with children and people who work with the public — opposed the change.
“I’m wondering who we’re serving if we do away with this mask mandate,” Gelter said in June. “It’s not the kids who are unvaccinated. It’s not the immunocompromised people who still feel like they can’t leave their houses. It’s people who just don’t want to wear a mask, and I cannot conscionably go along with that.”
But Gelter’s four colleagues, citing then-declining Covid numbers, said the order had outlived its purpose.
“If we say we’re following the science to put the mask order in place, we have to also recognize the science that tells us when it’s time to let it go,” selectboard member Tim Wessel said in June.
Since then, Covid-19 cases in Brattleboro and surrounding Windham County have risen to 69 in the past two weeks, leading the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recently label the area one of “substantial” public transmission where “people [should] wear a mask in public indoor settings.”
On Tuesday, Gelter asked the board to reimpose a municipal mask order, all while acknowledging the town has no real mechanism to police it.
“I know a mandate from the town when unenforced may feel useless to some folks,” she said, “but I think it’s the strongest statement we can make that we really want people to pay attention.”
Other selectboard members voiced support for a softer “recommendation” of “encouragement” to avoid alienating people averse to government mandates.
“The difference here is telling people what to do versus asking people,” Wessel said.
But after more than two hours of debate, the board voted 4-1 to restore a municipal mask order, with Wessel the only voice of dissent.
The action came the same day state leaders, while reporting “substantial” or “high” virus transmission in every county except Orange, reaffirmed current rules that let vaccinated people opt out of wearing masks.
“While cases have ticked up, it’s important for Vermonters to remember we’re not Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi or any other states with significantly lower vaccination rates and significantly higher hospitalizations,” Gov. Phil Scott said at a press conference Tuesday. “And this is why we’re not changing our statewide guidance or adding new recommendations at this time.”
Instead, the state will continue to ask unvaccinated people and incoming students and educators to take the most precautions.
“Wearing a mask, even if you’re fully vaccinated, is completely reasonable,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine added. “Taking this simple action maximizes safety.”