Knox Countians Support Knox County Board Of Health

Thank you for keeping Knoxville safe.

Thank you for keeping my friends and family in Knoxville safe. We appreciate your hard work and expertise.

Thank you to the Board of Health for working hard and using your expertise to protect the people of Knox County.

Appreciate all that you have done during this pandemic. There has to be an effort to protect the people. So much of our leadership at every level is inept and disfunctional

Leave the Board of Health alone. This is NOT politics; it is pandemic!

We respect and follow the expertise of the Knox County Health Department in regard to the health precautions they have advised for our community to reduce the spread of COVID 19. And we believe it is wrong that some citizens are speaking out against the KCHD which is managed by trained medical professionals who are skilled at knowing how to monitor medical threats. They have proven that they know what they're doing by the fact that we've seen a decrease in the # of Knoxville resident contracting the virus and in the # of people suffering and dying from it. This decrease has been accomplished through such simple steps as requiring masks in city buildings and urging residents to wear them in all other public places and restrictions on the # of restaurant patrons and curfews on bars/breweries. My husband is a physician at UT in the Internal Medicine Dept. He knows first hand how these reasonable and logical precautions have kept the virus under control and lowered the # of virus carriers and patients at our hospitals . And the KCHD has been balanced in their approach on how to battle the virus. They have not asked private businesses to close their doors. And many owners of those businesses have initiated their own masks requirements for public safety. Like the KCHD, they know the virus is still among us and will be until a vaccine is available. The KCHD has also only required restaurants to limit the # of patrons. Many are still successful with curbside and outdoor service. Wearing masks may be inconvenient but it is a small price to pay for public health.

I support the Board of Health in its efforts to control the pandemic. The efforts to undermine their science based approach are reprehensible.

I hope the Knox County Commission considers the Pandora’s box that they are opening if they take away the authority of the Board of Health to assert control over citizens’ behaviors during times of pandemic or other health crises and concerns. What happens when we have some other disease outbreak of something even more transmissible and more deadly than Covid? Are we just going to let some people ignore what the Board of Health has to say? We place rules on many types of behavior. We make people wear seatbelts. We don’t let people smoke indoors. We require children to get vaccines to go to school. We require people to wear shirts and shoes before entering restaurants and other establishments. The uproar about masks is not based in science. It’s based in the fact that media and politicians up to the highest levels of our government have made a virus a political football. This is not about taking away peoples’ rights. With rights come responsibilities. People have a responsibility not to do harm to others. The way to keep us from harming other people with COVID-19 is to wear masks and stay a safe distance away from people. If we all do that and pull together, then we can defeat the virus and things can go back to normal more quickly. All the anti-maskers are doing is dragging out this pandemic and causing everyone and everything to suffer more than is necessary. I have a right not to be subjected to people who might give me a disease that could kill me or leave me with a lifelong debilitation. We all have that right. All of this is incredibly shameful and hurtful because I have never seen anything like it in my life. If you take authority away from the Board of Health then you might as well just get rid of the Board of Health. And the idea that you should put someone on the board of health that does not have any expertise and comes from the business community is absurd. I support the Knox County Board of Health. I support a mask mandate no excepti

I support the Knox County Board of Health and thank the professionals on the board for the difficult decisions they are making for the health of Knox County residents.

Thank you for all you are doing to keep us safe.

Recognize their expertise.

Science over politics

Science over politics

Thank you to the Board of Health for your steadfast leadership during these times. I encourage the elected officials to let them keep doing their jobs.

We need to listen to our trained officials! I don't know why we would turn this important issue over to people who are not trained. We should appreciate our Board of Health!

Scientists and Medical professionals should be making the decisions regarding public health and safety within our community during a pandemic. It is unfortunate that social media is being used to encourage people who are woefully unqualified feel empowered to band together to bully civic leaders during a time that they should be protected and supported to serve their community. The mayor, who was narrowly elected has worked to encourage this dissidence that is not rooted in science but in the interest of our economy. Knox county has been collecting above average amounts in taxes from the community. The bullying of the board should stop. We need to be leaders among the outlying counties to demonstrate best practices to be safe and productive during this pandemic. Please don’t take away the health advisory board’s power to lead at this time.

It is important to carefully consider all of the impact of COVID mitigation measures, but anyone who expects life to be normal in the face of a pandemic with no effective treatment or vaccine is simply fooling themselves. We all want a return to normal, but wishing doesn't make it so.

I think the Board of Health has the best interest of the community in mind. They should be the ones to create public health policy.

<3 !

I had hoped our community wouldn’t sink to the low levels we see on a national level in politics but our county mayor appears to want to sink very low. Now is not the time to divide, we are all working to make the economy strong again but this virus is still with us and no life is expendable no matter their age.