Springfield City Council’s May 28 repeal of the COVID-19 regulations put in place over several months last year to protect our community followed a series of courageous and difficult actions as part of the community’s response to the pandemic.
The ordinances and associated mitigation strategies put in place over the course of those challenging months to protect our citizens served an important purpose and, as a result, saved numerous lives. We took the correct actions at the right times and stood firm. Our community is better because of it.
Reflecting upon the past 15 months brings me both comfort and grief. Never in my lifetime did I expect to see such valiant sacrifices. To those who have lost loved ones forever due to this pandemic, I share your pain. We will never be able to replace those we have lost. But we certainly can continue to take measures to make sure their deaths were not in vain.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has become the most significant global public health emergency to human society in the 21st century. Back in March 2020, in the face of the rapidly expanding new virus about which little was known, swift and decisive action was needed.
When we asked you to stay at home and for businesses to shut down, you listened. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the impact of COVID-19 now suggests that, in the complete absence of stay-at-home orders, the United States could have seen 220% higher rates of infection and a 22% higher fatality rate. It’s simple: those of you who stayed home saved lives.
When we asked businesses, churches, not-for-profits, the arts community and educators to reduce capacity, employ public health safety measures, and assist with mitigation strategies such as testing, quarantining and isolating, you listened.
You promoted behaviors that prevent spread, such as maintaining healthy environments and operations, and you prepared for when people got sick. Those actions resulted in reduced exposure of the virus among individuals, reduced transmission and reduced burden on our health care systems.
When we learned that the simple act of wearing a mask helped prevent us from spreading the disease to one another, we asked you to wear one in public, and once again, you listened. Collectively, we achieved a long-term goal of minimizing the severity of COVID-19 in those who contracted the illness and also prevented additional deaths.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also thank the communicators — the news media and the City and Springfield-Greene County Health Department public information specialists — who played the crucial role of keeping our citizens informed and educated in a time that is not easy and in an arena that is too often filled with misinformation. We are all blessed, thanks to your professionalism, ethics, conscientiousness and dedication.
I am proud of my colleagues at the City and Health Department and our many partners for making difficult choices, but taking necessary action and for persevering. In spite of the contentious nature of many of the actions which needed to be taken, we have seen Springfield at its best.
I want to thank our excellent health care providers and especially our health care workers, law enforcement, firefighters and first responders. You continue to serve the needs of our people in the most trying of circumstances with the most dedication to the highest level of service. Thank you.
The faith community has played an important role throughout all of this and has specifically tended to the spiritual and emotional needs of the community, as they always do, despite their specific challenges related to being separated from their congregations. Thank you.
I want to specifically thank former Health Department Director Clay Goddard and Acting Director Katie Towns for their tireless support and incredible leadership during these unprecedented times. Again and again, they stepped up to the plate, assisting with decision making using a data-driven approach based on sound medical science. I know that they, too, are thankful to our hospital and other health care partners who sacrificed immensely, working in environments that were similar to war zones — seeing and experiencing deaths at a rate no humans should ever have to witness.
I am pleased that our citizens have now had ample opportunity to get vaccinated. The vaccine is certainly the game changer in our fight against COVID-19. COVID-19 is becoming an endemic disease for communities across the world — it is and will be a regular part of the community and will continue to affect individuals, particularly those who are unvaccinated. In these scenarios, both the health care and public health systems have ongoing capacity to respond in these situations.
With the repeal of the ordinance requiring masking and other restrictions, we have done all we can from a public policy standpoint, and now it is the community’s responsibility to continue to act prudently. The virus is still here — do not take any unnecessary risks, wash your hands, watch the crowds and above all, get vaccinated.
I want to thank City Council, City Manager Jason Gage and City staff for the steadfast support and encouragement, undergirding my role and actions as mayor, and for the leadership and courage displayed by each council member, in spite of strong criticism from some quarters.
Finally, and most importantly, I want to thank the community. We have endured an unprecedented health care crisis and have emerged strong. Springfield is resilient and, in my opinion, a model city for dealing with the pandemic. We collaborated, we trusted data and science and we talked to the business and faith communities, as well as our not-for-profits and our schools and universities. Our partnerships are so tightly woven that we are able to do things quicker and more efficiently than most cities.
It is time to move forward on many fronts. Let’s do that together.
God bless you and God bless Springfield.