PA-CHD President Makes Testimony Before Phila. City Council at Approach of 3rd Anniversary of Emergency Declaration

It is important to remind Philadelphia Council Members that the city is still living with a suspension of the democratic process.  The city’s elected representatives continue to remain transfixed by COVID-19.  Council President Darrell Clarke only brought Council back for in-person meetings in September making it the longest medical isolation period for any major governmental body in the United States.  All large American city’s lawmakers were meeting in-person by last April.

Council President Clarke insists on caping public attendance to 1/3rd of normal capacity.  As can be seen in the video below he speaks through an N95 mask and has ordered anyone entering Council’s meeting chambers to be masked.  One highlight of the farcical nature of this imposition is that masks are not required in any other areas of Philadelphia City Hall except courtrooms where only juries must remain masked.  The majority of Council members do not abide by this rule but attendees are continually harassed by security personnel to keep the mask on and are reminded to wear it correctly.

PA-CHD Chapter President Vince Feldman spoke out on the unusual continuation of the Mayor’s ‘“Declaration of Extraordinary Circumstance: Suspending the Formal Regulatory Process for Regulations Concerning a Novel Coronavirus” to allow the City to promulgate emergency regulations on a shortened time frame in order to address the public health emergency posed by COVID-19’.

This declaration continues to be used to mandate COVID-19 shots on all city workers and contractors, all health care personnel and to students, teachers and staff of all colleges and universities in the city.

For a period of 6 weeks last winter all people 5 years or older were not permitted to eat or work in a restaurant without presenting proof of at least two COVID-19 shots.  President Clarke is using the Declaration to project his anxieties and compliance exercises on Council’s public meeting space.

Feldman stressed that City Council must make an effort to end these medical mandates as they have no public health value and are the most harmful public health intervention in the history of medicine.