PRESS EDITORIAL: Speak too freely about face masks and pay the price

Cathy Cero-Jaeger wasn’t politically correct enough for the delicate ears of some politicians of Ozaukee and Washington counties.

That’s a good one—a fact that is also a joke, one with health threatening implications.             

Cero-Jaeger, a retired registered nurse with an impressive health-care resumé, was kicked off the Washington Ozaukee Board of Health for speaking too honestly about face masks.

In the politicalization of mask wearing, some critics belittle mask advocates and those who follow the Wisconsin mask-wearing mandate and the advice of health authorities for toeing the politically correct line. But when

Cero-Jaeger talked in plain terms about the importance of face coverings, leaders of the two counties found the comments out of their preferred line of correctness and forced her to resign from the health board.

Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann said Cero-Jaeger’s “tone was especially appalling.” Ozaukee County Board Chairman Lee Schlenvogt said health board members should “avoid issues that divide the public.”

The public is certainly—and unfortuately—divided on the face mask issue, but how a health official could avoid talking about it is puzzling. For his part, Schoemann has contributed to dividing the public in Washington County.

An outspoken foe of mask-wearing rules, he has urged the Legislature to overturn Gov. Tony Evers’ mask order.

What did Cero-Jaeger say that got her fired? In response to a comment from another health board member about the politics of face masks, she said, “Have you heard the saying that wearing a mast isn’t a reflection of your politics, but it is a reflection of your IQ?”

It was an offhand comment made at the end of the meeting that others in the discussion found amusing, a quip that might have been politically incorrect but hardly “especially appalling.” What she meant was obvious—refusing to wear a mask in situations where it can limit the spread of the coronavirus is not smart.

In an interview with Ozaukee Press, Cero-Jaeger said her comment reflected her alarm about the sharp increase in Covid-19 cases in the two counties and “the lack of scientific literacy.” She added, “It’s not debatable. We know the number one thing to help us combat the disease is wearing a mask.”

Every credible health authority in the country, if not the world, agrees with her about face masks. One of them is CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, who told Congress at a September hearing: “We have clear scientific evidence they work, and they are our best defense.”

The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts that 371,000 Americans will have died of Covid-19 by the end of the year, but the institute’s modeling further shows that number could be reduced by 100,000 if 95% of Americans wore masks.

It is no surprise that the ousted health board member puts her faith in medical science. Cero-Jaeger was a clinical instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and worked as a registered nurse at Columbia Hospital and as the Mequon-Thiensvile School District nurse. She served as a medical missionary to Tanzania for three years.

 But on the issue of face masks, political voices are sometimes louder than scientific voices. A right-wing radio talk show personality made Cero-Jaeger’s comment the subject of his rant of the day. Others who view mask-wearing rules as an affront to their liberty piled on. And the heads of government in Ozaukee and Washington counties took the cue.

Some Republican state legislators are of a like mind. In a move that laid bare the political corruption of a health measure meant to save lives, they went to the state Supreme Court to support a lawsuit aimed at overturning the Wisconsin mask mandate on the same day it was reported that Wisconsin, one of several states leading a national surge in infections, had reached a Covid death toll of 1,353 and U.S. Covid deaths passed 209,000.

Now, there is something that can legitimately be called “especially appalling.”