The state of Montana is losing the battle against COVID-19 with new records of cases being reported almost daily. While the governor—Steve Bullock, who is currently running for Senate—has issued a mask mandate, many people and businesses are simply ignoring it.
One of the main areas where COVID-19 has been growing is Flathead County which has an all-Republican County Commission. The county health department has been unable to keep up with the increase of new cases and the local hospitals are reaching capacity. The health department has been sounding the alarm with greater urgency in recent days regarding exponential case growth. Data from the health department indicates that the source of the spread is from restaurants, bars, churches, and political events.
While the governor has called upon local governments to take steps to contain the pandemic, this has been rejected by the County Commission which has openly supported people who don’t wear masks and businesses which don’t require them. There is no enforcement of the mask mandate as the Commissioners feel that people should have the freedom to infect others.
The Flathead City-County Board of Health had announced that they were considering some actions to deal with the pandemic, but at their meeting yesterday this item was dropped from the agenda and the Board opted for inaction in response to the worsening pandemic. According to a report in the Flathead Beacon:
“The sometimes-contentious meeting pitted the medical community, public health officer and a minority of board members against the board’s majority, who questioned the way case and testing numbers are reported, offered disputed alternate science and cautioned against infringing on the freedoms of local residents.”
While health experts argued for the need for action, one of the anti-vaccination members of the board insisted that the survival rate for COVID-19 is 100 and attributed the rising number of positive tests to an increase in testing. Dr. Jeff Tjaden, the county’s foremost expert on COVID-19, attempted to correct the misstatements and then abruptly announced the he was leaving the meeting.
Once again we see triumph of COVID-19’s greatest ally: a republican anti-science mindset and a lack of concern for the people they govern.