Dr. Bud Pierce, Republican candidate for Oregon Governor, says that the state has overreached its authority by withholding crucial federal COVID-19 relief funds from the Alsea School District.
The school district announced it would make masks optional in classrooms. This is in opposition to the statewide mask mandate. As a result, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) reported they will withhold relief funds until the district complies with the state and federal mask requirements.
“Once again, governmental entities are attempting to assert their authority over citizens with a ‘one size fits all rule,’” said Dr. Pierce.
“It is critical that our focus is on helping our children get an excellent, quality education and stop disagreements and infighting between government and school districts. With Oregon schools ranking near the bottom of the nation for providing a quality K-12 education and facing a serious teacher shortage, we should be focused on solving these problems instead of spending time and money arguing over the use of cloth masks,” added Pierce.
There has been a question as to the effectiveness of cloth masks. On Jan 27, 2022 the CDC updated a report confirming that cloth masks are not highly effective for COVID-19’s variants.
As a physician who deals with immunocompromised patients daily, Dr. Pierce is on the ground level of the pandemic and closely follows the science of the many COVID variants and the effectiveness of upcoming treatments.
“I am concerned about our children’s education right now. We need to keep students in school, support teachers and their administrators. We need to ensure that parents are brought into the process. Local control and decision-making is always the best choice,” said Dr. Pierce.
Bud Pierce, M.D, Ph.D. is a business owner and senior partner of Oregon Oncology Specialists, one of the last physician-owned practices on the West Coast. He announced his candidacy for governor on the Republican ticket in April 2021. Approved photos and biography can be found at budpierce.org. To arrange an interview with Dr. Pierce, visit budpierce.org email [email protected].