Special Board of Alderman meeting 12/21/2020
Re: O-20-044
Relative to a Ban on certain Indoor activities for certain businesses starting at 9:30pm
Hello and Good Evening,
For the record, my name is Chuck Cappetta and | have been honored to serve as a member of
the Nashua Board of Health for the past 6 years and a full-time pediatrician for the past 30.
For 27 of these years, | have been here in Nashua serving the Greater Nashua Community in
this capacity of looking after infants, children, young adults and families.
| have also served as the school physician for both SAU 42 (Nashua) and SAU 41 (Hollis
Brookline) for the same 27 years and most recently for 3 years as the Physician of Record for
Bishop Guertin High School.
| extend a wholehearted thank you to Mayor Jim Donchess and all the wonderful Alderwomen
and Aldermen who have attended and participated in the Nashua Public Health Department
Zoom meetings these past few weeks around the discussion of a potential implementation of a
possible 9:30 pm curfew.
Let me begin my remarks by stating for the record- this has not been an easy discussion from
the start.
To frame our efforts for those not able to hear the discussion-we are not the Board of Labor,
we are not the Board of Commerce or Trade so where we started this education/prevention
message emanated from our roles as members.
As medical professionals, our mission is straightforward, and our only agenda is short and
sweet:
How can we maintain the best possible outcomes of good health for all of those around us in
our collective community-both young and old-while advocating for strategies or solutions that
may be able to minimize sickness and maximize disease prevention?
That is the definition of Public Health.
This proposed short term Emergency ordinance is one such example of trying to do our best to
preserve and protect the health and wellbeing of the citizens of Nashua.
Let the obvious be stated - this is not a practice drill-this pandemic is the real thing front and
center like nothing we in the medical establishment have seen since the early 1900's.
