8 ways our mask rules crumbled into comedic chaos

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

#1. Permanent mask rule backlash: In Late January, Gov. Brown pushed for a permanent mask rule policy which only served to create backlash.  The Oregonian Editorial Board howled and pleaded with Brown to abandon the policy.

The fact that Oregon was doing something oddly different made national news:

Even local government officials joined in on the opposition:

It only took a few days before the Oregon Health Authority was scrambling to control the media narrative by getting news stations to report that “permanent” really wasn’t “permanent” and was just a permanent guideline.   It was a disaster.  By the time the Health Authority was getting this message out, Oregon was setting a date to end the mask rule altogether, which made the whole ordeal pointless.

#2. Blatantly ignoring the public: The Oregon Health Authority held a public hearing where almost all of the 350 people who signed up to testify were against the permanent (quasi-permanent) mask rule.  Their pleas were ignored as the agency did it anyways.   This was one of the only public hearings of the entire pandemic and our State Government simply refused to listen, or care, and did what they were going to do all along.  Then the protest against the permanent mask mandate gained national attention:

#3. Other states bail, leaving Oregon alone by itself. Both citizen fatigue, dire polling and Canadian protests spurred the last remaining mask states to quickly drop their mandate.  Oregon was left looking alone and foolish.

#4. Gov. Brown overshoots: Gov. Brown shoots for March 31st to save face and broadcasts to the world that the permanent mask mandate, just weeks old, wasn’t permanent after-all.

#5. Gov. Brown changes mind, tries to avoid Spring Break fiasco.  Gov. Brown set a date so far in advance that it once again made Oregon look reckless.   Facing Spring Break at the last week in March, Brown saved face again by setting the date on March 19th.   Surely Governor Brown remembers the first Spring Break disaster in 2020 when Oregonians flaunted her rules — it was bound to be a maskless Spring Break this year no matter what.

#6. Oregon agencies fight each other over messaging:  Gov. Brown declared that schools can make their own decisions, but within hours, Brown’s education Department said they should stick with full masking.  You had agencies fighting each other.

#7.  Schools decry the chaos, fight back:  As one of the last remaining places in America with masked school children, schools began openly defying the Governor.

In one case this year of school confusion you had schools closing in-person learning but keeping school sports open, which made no sense.

#8. Gov. Brown reverses herself after just a few days.  Gov. Brown once again pulls the mask date to March 11th after even more heat from the public.

These 8 examples are all the result of Gov. Brown’s plan of implementing the most-restrictive, least flexible, no public participation, no transparency and no local control policies.

— Quick question:  Did you not find this article helpful?   We worked hard not just to write another article complaining about mask mandates but went the extra mile to present the problem in a visual format for easy reading and to use plenty of credible media headlines and charts to prove our point to a skeptical and confused audience who is seeing constant contradictory information in the news and unsure what to make of it.  We combined 5 weeks of Governor Brown’s terrible decision making into one single article to showcase how absurd it has been while also providing the voters, elected officials and future candidates the facts behind it in a single location so they can share it with others.   If you think this article excels above the usual fare then please contribute online at OregonWatchdog.com (learn about a Charitable Tax Deduction or Political Tax Credit options to promote liberty).