Race, party, and the virus

Montgomery City Council votes down mask ordinance, sends doctors out in disgust

Jackson Hospital pulmonologist William Saliski cleared his throat as he started describing the dire situation created by the coronavirus pandemic in Montgomery to its City Council before they voted on a mandatory mask ordinance. 

"It's been a long day, I apologize," he said.

"The units are full with critically-ill COVID patients," Saliski said. 

"About 90% of them are Black." 

He said hospitals are able to manage for now, but it's not sustainable. 

"This mask slows that down, 95% protection from something as easy as cloth. ... If this continues the way it's going, we will be overrun."

More doctors followed him to the microphone, describing the dead being carried out within 30 minutes of each other, and doctors being disturbed when people on the street ask them if the media is lying about the pandemic as part of a political ploy.

After they spoke, and before the council voted on a proposal by Councilman C.C. Calhoun to mandate mask-wearing in public in Montgomery, Councilman Brantley Lyons questioned whether masks and six-foot distancing really helps. 

They do, the doctors replied. 

Lyons was unmoved. 

"At the end of the day, if an illness or a pandemic comes through we do not throw our constitutional rights out the window," Lyons said.

. . . .

[T]he council killed the ordinance after it failed to pass in a 4-4 tie, mostly along racial lines, with Councilman Tracy Larkin absent. 

Councilman Clay McInnis voted with three Black council members — Calhoun, Oronde Mitchell and Audrey Graham — in favor of the ordinance. 

Lyons, Charles Jinright, Richard Bollinger and Glen Pruitt voted against it.