Sheriff Woods, your office, The Marion County Sheriff’s Department, has issued a “no mask” mandate for your law enforcement deputies, employees, and any civilian visitors to buildings controlled and managed by your department.  The wearing of masks in a public building should be a personal choice. To expressly forbid anyone to wear a mask represents a poor sense of compassion for your constituents. Considering the state of the Covid-19 pandemic in Florida, this mandate is possibly unconstitutional at most, and at a minimum demonstrates misfeasance.  

In your own words, “The fact is, the amount of professionals that give the reason why we should, I can find the exact same amount of professionals that say why we shouldn’t.”, would infer that at least 50% of professional epidemiologists, virologists, and medical research scientists support the wearing of masks; as does the World Health Organization (WHO), the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and the President of the United States.  To ignore the potential that wearing masks has a positive affect on slowing the spread of the virus is unconscionable and foolish.

This mandate needlessly exposes the Marion County government to potentially expensive and unnecessary litigation if a citizen’s positive test is traced back to the Sheriff’s office.  More importantly, putting additional lives at risk when you can not absolutely claim the science overwhelmingly supports your position simply violates the Oath of Office every Florida elected official takes, namely, “protect ... the State of Florida”.

Public health decisions should be made by those with the formal education, knowledge, and background gleaned from years of experience in disease control and medical research.  Unless you are in possession of these qualifications I would urge you not to make decisions that are out of your field of expertise. 

Sheriff Woods, please reconsider this mandate and rescind it without delay.