Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2021 Page 13
treatment? How are we going to get treated? | am a trained critical care specialist and as such, | have spoken to
people who said Doc | will never XYZ until they were facing death. | have stared into the face, the pleading eyes of
people who are dying. | stood on the other side of the bed when my grandchild was near death and | was pleading
with healthcare providers to use everything in their power to save his life, which blessedly they were able to do. But
we must bend this curve.
Yes, we have vaccines but as Director Bagley pointed out, those numbers are very, very low. The vaccines have
been available for almost a year and the Pfizer vaccine has been fully endorsed not just emergency use for months
now. Even if today every single person on this call, every single person in our community got vaccinated, the
immunity takes weeks to build up. It won't help us through the next month. COVID-19 has already killed one in 415
Americans and one in 100 people over the age of 65. It's the third leading cause of death in the United States. While
much has been made about the fact that underlying medical conditions predisposed to severe illness, hospitalization,
and death, it's worth noting that things like high blood pressure, being overweight, and having anxiety disorders are
risk factors for those things - from COVID-19.
Dr. Chuck talked about the pediatric risks. This is at this point about bending the curve of hospitalizations. So you've
heard about the other ways that we can bend the curve and those things are important. Hand washing is important
especially now we're also at flu season upon us because we're indoors. It's a well- established fact that COVID-19 is
predominantly spread through respiratory particles that can hang in the air and cross distances. So while hand
washing is important and social distancing is important, then these measures are not enough especially during the
winter months. Most indoor spaces don't have the level of air exchange or antiviral measures that would be needed.
Now publicly available data show that unvaccinated persons face a 10 times greater risk of testing positive and they
may not know it, and a 20 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people who've also
received the booster, and most of those people are dying in the hospital. As far as the effectiveness of masks, yes
there are masks that are more and more and more effective, especially for healthcare workers that are constantly
exposed on the frontlines all of whom need our help. We have, and I've provided to you in writing, a study from the
proceedings of the National Academy of Science that conducted a mega review of all the available data because
people will quote different studies about masks but the only way in science that we have black and white answers is
when you conduct what's called a “randomized controlled study”. So you take people who get the protection and
people who don't and you put them all at risk in the middle of a pandemic. You can't do that. That's not ethical.
When we are in a position of substantial community transmission, which all of New Hampshire is, that's the data that
can help us to know if we are able to bend this curve and if we are able to reduce our hospitalizations if only during
our concern with a peak that will occur after the holidays as has been said.
Many have questioned why the Board of Aldermen should impose a mask mandate rather than let people make their
own decisions? And to help answer this question, we should consider the published science of decision making.
People make good decisions when they have good information and a good amount of information. But that's not what
we have right now is presently information overload and sorry to say a pandemic of misinformation. Intelligent people
can make decisions harmful to themselves and others when they're anchored in certain perspectives due to their prior
experiences or to the experiences of those around them. Our hospitals, our health care workers, our families, our
neighbors, our clergy, they all need our help. So | urge you to go forward and enact this time limited mask mandate
ordinance as quickly as possible because to do nothing right now puts each and every one of us at risk that when we
need help, either the necessary staff nor the equipment will be there. Do it for our healthcare heroes and for the
medical and economic health of our community.
Finally if the ordinance is not implemented before Christmas holiday, | urge everyone to take the spread of the Delta
and Omicron variants seriously and to take active steps to keep yourselves, your families, and those important to you
safe unless everybody you're celebrating with is fully vaccinated and has received a booster, please consider using a
rapid COVID home test before joining into a gatherings with others that are not in your household, and please use a
mask when you're not actively eating or drinking. These steps will not offer 100% protection, but they'll go a long way
towards keeping us all safe. | wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and | pray that we will be able to
gather together again at this time next year in good health and without masks and | thank you so very much. I'm
available to answer questions.
President Wilshire
Does anyone have any questions for Dr. Rosenblum?
