Sarah Durand, Bluegrass Institute Director of Government Affairs, recently debated Jefferson County school board member Chris Kolb, Ph.D., regarding COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates at the Louisville Forum, hosted by WFPL reporter Ryan Van Velzer. Following are Durand’s prepared opening remarks:

I am not here as a person who is anti-masking, or as a person who is an anti-vaxxer. I’m here as a person who is pro-liberty. I am here to support the position that you should be able to make your own medical decisions and that those decisions are personal and sacred.

Your medical decisions shouldn’t be political. It has never been - and never should be - the role of government or even the CDC to rule over the health decisions of you and your family. It is their role to provide information and let you take that information in consideration with your own situation so you can make informed health decisions based on your individual needs.

The amount of sickness and death from COVID saddens me. But, keep in mind that for years more people in our commonwealth have died from heart disease each year than have died of COVID in 18 months. This is an example where people exercise their right to ignore the advice of the CDC and their doctor and choose to eat fast food, even though the medical community will tell you it’ll eventually kill you.

Historically, more people die of heart disease everyday in this country that currently die of COVID. Yet we don’t outlaw cheeseburgers or mandate exercise or publicly shame people who are overweight because they are putting themselves at greater risk to develop and potentially die from heart disease - unlike how many people treat the unmasked and unvaccinated.

We let people make their choices. If you want to wear a mask or get vaccinated, do it. Don’t if you don’t. We all have reasons for our choices and we should respect each other.

I will say I am fully vaccinated. I’ll tell you that at as liberty loving person, I almost didn’t get vaccinated because I want to stand up for the medical freedom of those who have every right to not be forced or bullied into putting a drug into their bodies they don’t want.

But, my husband said, “yes, I’ll stand with you; let’s fight the good fight; but, can you please get vaccinated so you aren’t doing it from a ventilator?”

That was the decision we made, but if you are one of those people whose looking at some of the science out there and are worried, I support whatever decision you make. 

I get it…the FDA often pulls drugs they approved because we can’t always see the long-term consequences in short-term studies. How many times do we see an ad on tv that says “if you’ve taken x drug and have had these side effects you may be entitled to a settlement”? It’s not just a brand new vaccine, it’s a brand new type of vaccine. This is the first mRNA vaccine that’s been given on a large scale.

So, if you want to stay part of the control group until this vaccine has had some time to prove it isn’t going to turn us into zombies, I get that. I hope for my sake you are wrong, but I get it and I think we owe you respect as you take the time you need to be comfortable with this very new drug.

Medicine isn’t an exact science. But, because we know more now that we knew 18 months, we should be having less of these one-size-fits-all, sweeping mandates and taking more targeted specific prevention efforts.

I’m not really here to argue about the efficacy of mask wearing, although I’m happy to talk about how there is science on both sides. 

If you want to hear about 109 studies on long-term mask wearing going back to 2004 that found it can cause serious psychological and medical issues, or the most recent study I’ve seen on masking that was released by our very own University of Louisville just a couple of weeks ago that found no association between mask mandates or use and reduced COVID spread. I’m happy to go there. 

If you want to talk about all the vaccine deaths and over 600,000 adverse effects that have been reported, or how the way the CDC calculates its numbers inflates the appearance of unvaccinated deaths, I’m happy to go there.

But, mostly I’m just here to say I respect your right as a free person to make your own medical decisions and I hope you’ll respect mine.

I’m much more worried about the precedent it sets for freedom if we start allowing the government and corporations and big Pharma to force you to put a drug into your body that you don’t want. If they can do that, they can do anything. 

If you’re scared of me, get vaccinated. If I’m scared of you I can get vaccinated.

No matter how much the media and government try to keep us hysterical and pit us against each other based on our personal health decisions, I would never trade your liberty for my security. In a free society, you do you.

Watch the entire Louisville Forum discussion here.