MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It was already bad enough that Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is playing fast and loose with the health of school children by allowing them to opt out of mask mandates. But now he’s defending his misguided decision with so-called expert testimony that masks don’t work against COVID-19.
The governor’s mask opt-out executive order has been struck down by federal judges in all three grand divisions of the state. And Lee responded to those rulings by claiming the judges – including Judge Sheryl Lipman of Memphis – are legislating from the bench. The comment was pure political hyperbole, but it’s what you’d expect from an conservative Republican governor trying to stay in good graces with his right wing Republican base.
But Lee and his administration have gone over the top by soliciting testimony from a Stanford trained medical doctor who insists masks are ineffective in slowing the spread of the virus and actually do more harm than good. It is an outlandish conclusion that has no basis in fact. Virtually every leading authority – from the CDC to the American Academy of Pediatrics to every credible immunologist – agrees that masks offer protection against COVID. And for the governor’s administration to suggest otherwise with crackpot testimony in a court of law is irresponsible and dangerous.
To quote the late great Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Governor Lee is entitled to his opinion, but he is not entitled to his own facts.