Masks should be required at the Statehouse

I am angry. The legislators from Johnson County not only represent me at the Statehouse, they are my friends. The Republicans who have decided that visitors to the Legislature and Capitol do not have to wear masks are putting my friends' lives at risk. These Republicans refuse to believe the science that masks help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Do all of the people who find wearing a mask uncomfortable or a challenge to their freedom want to go back 200 years before we learned about germs and viruses spreading illnesses and diseases? Do we want to go back to 1799 when George Washington lay in bed with a sore throat and trouble breathing and his doctors prescribed bloodletting?

The middle of a 21st century pandemic is no time to stop believing doctors and start believing crank theories on the internet.

Gary Sanders

Iowa City