“COVID-19 has devastated Missouri throughout the year despite the protection offered by vaccines. The state endured a massive surge in coronavirus cases over the summer as the Delta variant spread and sickened tens of thousands, including tourists who returned to their home states infected.

“A coroner in the state admitted to excluding COVID-19 cases from death certificates at the requests of families.”

“Pemiscot County, a rural municipality in the southeastern corner of Missouri’s Bootheel, only about 26 percent of the population is fully vaccinated—although not boosted—against COVID-19; despite growing hospital numbers and a rapid increase in cases. The shocking statistic is similar to other Missouri counties.

“Critics say Missouri is setting itself up for even more trouble—and pointing the finger at a cynical play for votes in a Republican Party that sometimes seems to be doubling down on pandemic death.

“‘Attorney General Schmitt is using his office as a tool for his campaign at the expense of not only taxpayer dollars, but at the risk to the health and safety of every Missourian,’ State House Minority Leader Crystal Quade said Friday. ‘Whether it’s asking adult vigilantes to submit photos of school children wearing masks or threatening school boards and health departments, the Attorney General is clearly trying to score political points with the far right. Schmitt’s standing in the GOP primary shouldn’t be the factor that puts the health and safety of Missourians at risk,’”

“For Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a specialist in infectious diseases, the hectic situation in Missouri ‘underscores the need for state legislatures to codify, in law, public health powers so that during emergency situations, health departments can perform their core functions with established legal authority.’”

“Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University global-health expert agreed, arguing that Schmitt’s letter was the product “of a political axe to grind.”

“Public health officials have always had the power to test, contract trace, and ensure the safety of the public amid an emergency,” Gostin said. “These powers have existed a century before COVID came and they will continue to exist.” However, in Missouri today, health departments are now in fear of the state's AG & are totally staying clear of anything to do with COVID.

“Tracey Sloan of Lebanon, Missouri, told The Daily Beast that she was “not shocked” by Schmitt’s actions, arguing that “our state government has been lacking since the beginning” of the pandemic. Sloan noted that some residents in the state have been hesitant to follow COVID guidelines throughout the crisis—and that access to information about cases, hospitalizations, and vaccination sites hasn’t done much to curtail it.”

“In response to the allegations that Schmitt’s stance is merely a tactic for his Senate campaign, his AG spokesperson responded: “As always, that criticism is completely unfounded and ridiculous. As the chief legal officer of the state, Attorney General Schmitt is fighting for the freedom and liberty of all six million Missourians, and that’s something he will continue to do.”

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More and more people we know personally are falling victim in Missouri to COVID. Some with not good outcomes. This has been extremely sobering. Even with being fully vaccinated & boostered, I don’t feel as “safe” in 2021 as even earlier in the pandemic. That says a lot, and it’s not good.

In order to protect ourselves from what is happening in Missouri, we have lost our own personal “freedom and liberty” to live a relatively normal life; while also staying reasonably safe. With so many others around us behaving recklessly – and the state government actually aiding the virus to spread unchecked - our personally following CDC guidelines is no longer enough to avoid this virus. It takes a community working together for these guidelines to be effective.

Yes, we do have the “freedom” to be vaccinated and to not join in with those who “may” be carrying the virus. Who “may be infected” could now be about anyone who has come into contact with someone else. Thus, our decision to avoid strangers the best we can. In order to protect our lives, I feel like (by living in Missouri) we are arbitrarily now being forced into what more or less feels-like “house arrest”.

To those, who are currently leading the state politically, the lives of Missourians seem to mean less than politics. With so much disease (which is more highly contagious than ever) - and so little aid from the state government with basic health measures - everyone in the state, who goes out in public, faces a significant risk under today's situation. Some can survive that risk better than others.

As long as America’s democracy doesn’t fall, politics don’t interest me. However, this pandemic should have never been turned into a political issue with the common man & woman (and their very lives) being pawns.

The virus cares nothing about red or blue states. However, it best thrives where basic protective measurements are not in place.