Board of Aldermen 01-25-2022 Page 16
can to protect people we don’t know. If that means wearing a mask, | think many people will chose to do that because of
the leadership that the city shows. There will always be people who will not follow laws. We don’t make laws for people
who are going to break them unless we're specifically trying to target them with penalties. Most laws are designed for
people who are going to follow them out of a sense of responsibility to their city and a sense of responsibility to their
community. So while we did hear from some people tonight who are unwilling to follow rules unless the agree with them,
we also heard from a lot of citizens who are willing to do what is necessary to help other people and who will abide with
uncomfortable situations if necessary.
Alderman Jette
Madam President would it be in order — | noticed that the Chairman of the Board of Health is here. Would it be in order to
allow him to explain to us why the Board of Health is recommending that we extend the mask mandate?
President Wilshire
Dr. Storace are you willing to give a few minutes since you are here?
Dr. Anthony Storace
Good evening. Thank you for allowing us to be here. One of the things running it across and | think is important is the
fact that this is something unique that has never happened to us at this magnitude. Yes this managed to kill a lot of
different people but times were different, techniques, education was minimum. We're writing this book as we’re going. |
apologize if there’s a lot of confusion because there’s a lot of confusion for us too as well as we listen to information
coming down. | apologize. There’s probably been a lot of politics involved in it as well but we and science don’t like that
at all.
| can tell you that the masks do work. I’ve worn one for 40 years — 10 to 12 hours a day. I’ve never had a patient say hey
doc take it off it doesn’t work. It does work. Yes the Omicron and the Delta particles are small and can get through but
one of the things that all of us wearing the mask help protect is it knocks down most of them and that helps us.
I'll also bring your attention, without naming names, the last time we were here one of the Board of Aldermen came down
with COVID. | think that that was the only person, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, but | believe truly it was because
we were all wearing masks. Yes how did we get, how did he get it, | don’t know. | don’t go home with him. | don’t watch
him. He’s not on surveillance. We know that this last variant — and there’s other variants out there — but luckily it looks
like they’re dying out. This last variant had the bad news extremely infectious. The good news, not as (inaudible) as
Delta. The vaccines that we gave out who I’ve know many people who have been vaccinated who have gotten Omicron.
So that happens. | know one person in particular personally who’s gotten COVID three times. | personally think he
should be a study model for the case. While that’s true but each one of those cases was verified by a nucleic acid test
which is very, very sensitive to what is going on.
So we know it’s there. We predicted the surge. We were getting tired. We got a little bit lax. We went out and partied at
Christmas and Thanksgiving and we told you there would be a surge and even a spike on top of the surge. They were
thinking that by mid-January based on the models from the University of Washington, also from John Hopkins, thought
that this would kind of crest in our area by the second weekend of January. Now they're predicting it’s more like the first
weekend in February. Yes if you go on the CBC website and you look at the graph, you'll see we're coming down. When
you look at those graphs, you have to remember it’s also like looking at a stock graph. Is it going down? Should | buy?
Oops is it going back up or is it flattening out? We don’t know. We just don’t know. We’re hoping it’s going in the right
direction. The bad news is it’s not going in the right direction fast enough that we feel comfortable saying take the masks
off, we can go ahead, there will still be some spread but it will be reasonable.
One of the things we feel the masks have done significantly is help the hospitals and we know that that’s a problem. We
have National Guards in our hospitals here in Nashua filing in for people. It’s been a tough road as Mr. Lopez has talked
about. Yes there’s financial gain but there’s a huge personal price you have to pay when you work those hours under that
kind of stress, etc., etc.
I’m not a pediatrician so | can’t answer any of your questions regarding the schools. The school mandates for masks
come from the School Department. | have some of the staff here who’d be more than happy to share the data if you’re
data driven. If you’re tired and you don’t want to hear it, that’s okay too. | understand. | look at the data every day. Like
I’ve said last time, studying for infectious disease for the last two years just to try to keep up and watch the changes. One
week we hear one thing. The next week we hear something totally different or a variation on that. That’s the book being
