Conn. doctor petitions Lamont for mask mandate
A Connecticut doctor has launched an online petition, asking Gov. Ned Lamont to institute a statewide mask mandate among other restrictions.
Mark Siegel, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Yale New Haven Health, started the petition that specifically asks the governor to “institute a mask mandate in all indoor venues; require restaurants to confirm proof of vaccination from customers; and take all necessary steps to minimize disease spread by opening windows and doors and
continuing outdoor dining as the weather allows.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, 190 people had signed the petition.
While Siegel works for Yale New Haven Health, he stressed that he does not represent either Yale New Haven Hospital or the school of medicine.
“I'm just a physician with concerns,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “Our concern has always been that the governor may not be hearing what the physicians are thinking directly. I think I felt a need to make sure that he understands the nature of our concerns.”
Lamont’s spokesman, Max Reiss, said the response from the state has been an “evolution.”
“We’re in a very different place than we were in December 2020. We’re in a different phase of the pandemic, as well. We believe there are different things that work today than worked 20 months ago,” Reiss said. “With each variant, we’ve seen different struggles and different responses.”
Siegel said he sent a letter to Lamont, suggesting mandates, and actually met with the governor, along with some colleagues, earlier in the pandemic. And while he said Lamont did appear to take his concerns seriously, Siegel said, “I think that there's always been a part of him that seems to want to just get businesses up and going again.”
“I think the failure to be explicit about expectations and to impose mandates on masks sends the message to people that masks aren't really that important,” he said.
Siegel said he’d like to see a policy like the one in New York City, where proof of vaccination is required to eat indoors at a restaurant.
“While my understanding is that the governor is interested in developing this app for people to show their vaccinated status, I don't see any will to require that places demand proof of vaccination,” he said.
Lamont referenced New York’s vaccination requirement during a Monday news conference.
“I like to do things that work,” Lamont said. “New York and New Jersey are ground zero for omicron right now. You can't stop what may be happening there with a lot of additional restrictions and mandates.”
Siegel said he’s not in favor of forcing restaurants to close, but he said rising case rates and hospitalizations require stronger measures to mitigate the spread of COVID.
The state said Wednesday there are 821 people in Connecticut hospitals with a coronavirus infection. Since Tuesday, 3,366 new COVID infections were discovered among 37,678 tests for a 8.93 percent positivity rate — one of the highest in recent weeks.
With the positivity rate nearing 9 percent each of the day two days, the state’s seven-day average has reached 7.78 percent, which is the highest since broad testing efforts were established several months into the pandemic.
“I think that the assumption that demanding vaccination is going to hurt business isn't self-evidently true,” Siegel said. “There are a lot of people who won't go to restaurants because they know that other customers might not be vaccinated. I actually believe that people would be more willing to go to restaurants if they knew that there was a vaccine mandate, because they would feel safer doing so.”
Instead of issuing sweeping mandates, Reiss said the state has allowed businesses and local municipalities the leeway to do what they believe is necessary to limit the spread of COVID-19.
“It only makes sense to put in restrictions if you can effectively enforce them,” he said. “You can only have rules if you’re able to enforce those rules.”
Local municipalities have begun to reinstate mandates. Stamford, for example, announced this week that masks would be required at all indoor establishments. Trumbull has a similar rule.
Lamont said restaurants, and local municipalities know their customers and residents.
“I gave a lot of discretion to our restaurants and stores because they know their customers the best,” the governor said Monday. “I can pass a lot of laws and mandates and restrictions, but they're only effective when people follow it so that's why I like to give that local discretion. They know their populations the best and they're the ones responsible for enforcing it.”
That town-by-town approach is Siegel’s primary worry.
“I think that what I am most concerned about is the muddled message. I would love to see the governor get up there and say to the state of Connecticut that we all need to pull together,” he said. “He needs to do more than say, ‘I trust people to do the right thing.’ I think he should be very explicit about what the expectations are.”
Siegel’s ultimate goal with his petition is to see the governor issue a clear set of rules for everyone — statewide.
Specifically, Siegel would like a stronger stance on vaccination, masking, availability of coronavirus tests, and clarity on issues like indoor dining: “That includes dining indoors with people outside your family when vaccination status is unknown,” he said.
“I just have not heard a strong definitive statement from the governor that describes what we need to do to preserve the health of this state,” he said.
When asked if his petition was coming from a place of exhaustion as a pulmonologist in the midst of a pandemic, he said yes.
“A lot of my colleagues in health care express it as exhaustion,” he said. “I see it more as a sense of frustration, knowing that we know how to prevent the deadly virus from spreading, and yet we're not doing everything in our power to keep it from happening.”