Citizen Journalism Rises Among Parents Who Question Health Policies

As much radical question whether their section wellness policies are engaging successful authorities overreach, parents are becoming national investigative journalists who signifier constitutional rights groups to clasp policymakers accountable.

For Kelly Wiggen successful Rutherford County, North Carolina, it began erstwhile she said the disguise mandates successful her child’s schoolhouse weren’t adding up.

From there, the concern proprietor turned researcher started digging, requesting documents, and connecting dots.

Like different law rights groups specified arsenic the WNCFreedom2020 radical and the North Carolina Citizens for Constitutional Rights, the Rutherford County Board of Accountability (RCBA) is simply a citizen-run radical organized likewise to however established section authorities boards are structured according to the parliamentary procedure.

Government officials, oregon anyone with a spouse who is an elected official, can’t beryllium a subordinate but tin beryllium invited to attend, with a constricted timeframe successful which to speak.

“There tin beryllium zero conflicts of interest,” Wiggen told The Epoch Times. “It’s going to flip the tables connected them.”

Wiggen has been presenting her findings astatine assorted state rallies, specified arsenic 1 held by the Catawba County Mama Bears connected Saturday.

The wealth way she’s followed has led her to circumstantial signed agreements betwixt section wellness directors and the national authorities that she said springiness the national authorities unlimited powerfulness implicit section governments due to the fact that of those section entities accepting COVID-19 alleviation aid.

“I deliberation astir radical person the information successful caput that section entities aren’t going to let the national authorities to travel successful and bash immoderate it wants,” she said.  “We look to these entities to support america from that, but they’ve been bought disconnected with these agreements.”

Having mislaid spot successful section governments adhering much to CDC orders alternatively than their ain policies, she said the RCBA came unneurotic to support the children who are being affected by these policies, specified arsenic mandatory masks and quarantines, arsenic good arsenic aboriginal vaccine mandates.

Terms and Conditions

One agreement she’s examined, signed by Rutherford County Health Director Karen Powell, states that arsenic a recipient of funds awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) done coronavirus-relief packages, the section wellness section indispensable comply with existing and aboriginal directives from the HHS caput and assistance the U.S. authorities successful the “implementation and enforcement of national orders related to quarantine and isolation.”

“This was an statement that the section wellness manager signed to judge $115,000 for a schoolhouse liaison position,” Wiggen said. “This federalizes our wellness section and each wellness section that took the money.”

Waves of national backing to section governments and agencies person travel from the $8.3 cardinal Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act; the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act; the $484 cardinal Paycheck Protection Program and Health Enhancement Act; the $2.3 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act; the $10 cardinal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, and the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, each of which necessitate compliance with existent and aboriginal national directives “as they subordinate to mitigating the dispersed of COVID-19.”

“I committedness you each section entity—sheriff, school, wellness department—that signed an statement for COVID backing sold power of that entity to the national government,” Wiggen said.

She said this has been seen with section schoolhouse boards reversing from their archetypal “mask optional” stance astatine the opening of the schoolhouse semester backmost to disguise required.

“I fishy they were reminded of the wealth they took,” Wiggen said.

In South Carolina, aft Gov. Henry McMaster enactment retired an enforcement bid banning masks mandates, Miguel Cardona, the U.S. Secretary of Education, wrote a letter to McMaster stating that the ARP requires section agencies to follow “science-based strategies,” specified arsenic “universal and close wearing of masks.”

In June, HHS announced that it had awarded $1 cardinal successful ARP funds to pre-school Head Start programs nationwide.

The CRRSA includes supplemental backing for COVID-19 vaccine programs to execute “broad-based distribution,” and has the aforesaid verbiage requiring compliance with existent and aboriginal directives that includes “vaccine onslaught teams” and “mobile vaccine clinics.”

Wiggen pointed to the CDC’s report connected options for creating camps to abstracted “high risk” from “low risk” people.

She’s adjacent created a flow chart of however she said national COVID-19 backing “has enactment section entities astatine the mercy” of the national authorities and the authorities wellness manager and secretary.

‘There’s Nothing to Stop Them’

“If you harvester each of this together, determination is thing that could halt a national vaccine mandate for our children successful schools,” she said. “If your section authorities accepted COVID-19 money, that wealth is going to person the aforesaid presumption and conditions, which means determination is thing they tin bash to halt the national authorities from coming successful and doing anything, and those section agencies really agreed to assist.”

She past pointed to Gov. Roy Cooper’s Oct. 4 executive bid 236 that gives the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen “authority to modify oregon waive enforcement of definite ineligible constraints oregon regulations which restrict the contiguous alleviation of quality suffering,” arsenic good arsenic directs State Health Director Elizabeth Tilson to “issue immoderate statewide lasting bid needed successful her aesculapian judgement to facilitate COVID-19 investigating and vaccination.”

“If Mandy Cohen oregon the national wellness caput wanted to necessitate everyone to get the injection, there’s thing to halt them,” Wiggen said. “If that’s a directive they tin assertion is attached to the stopping of the dispersed of COVID-19, our section agencies person already signed an agreement.”

Meanwhile, Wiggen said Rutherford County Schools voted connected Thursday to proceed its disguise mandate until the CDC says the schoolhouse strategy tin spell 7 days without being successful the “high transmission” category.

“As of past night, we’ve had 94 affirmative cases successful the past 7 days, retired of implicit 67,000 people, which is 0.1 percent of the population,” Wiggen said. “What precisely qualifies arsenic debased if 0.1 percent is high?”

Decisions not Based connected Science but Directives

In an earlier committee meeting, she filmed the president of the Rutherford County Commissioner gathering stating, “We’re not present contiguous to marque a determination based connected the subject 1 mode oregon the other. You tin find arsenic galore experts connected some sides arsenic you privation to find, those for it and those against it. We’re not present for that.  We’re present for 1 thing, and that’s to marque a determination based connected a directive from our section wellness manager connected however the guidance is attributed to this toolkit and quarantine.”

For Wiggen, the commissioner’s connection reflects the nationalist clime of wellness policies.

“Realistically, the mode this state has been reacting, radical volition bargain thing these days,” she said.