The Buncombe County Commissioners typically meet on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. Their next meeting will be held this Tuesday at 200 College Street, Room 326 in downtown Asheville, beginning at 5:00 PM. Be aware that Buncombe County Government County Manager Avril Pinder announced on August 6 that employees and visitors to County buildings would be required to wear face masks starting Monday, August 9, regardless of vaccination status. You are mistaken if you believe that it might end there. The agenda includes “Consideration of a Local State of Emergency” as a topic under New Business. Hmmm…what do you think that means? Might they again be thinking that we aren’t smart enough to make our own health decisions? We suspect that the meeting will end with at least a new mask mandate. If you are in favor of that, you should stay at home Tuesday evening and relax. However, if you are NOT okay with that, we encourage you to do at least one of the following:
- Come to the meeting on Tuesday and offer your thoughts publicly to the commissioners.
- Telephone or email your County Commissioner and the chair to share your thoughts before Tuesday’s meeting.
- Telephone or email Asheville City and Buncombe County school board members.
A quick trip to cdc.gov to look at the numbers for Buncombe County for the period between January 1, 2020, through August 7, 2021 (20 months) tells us:
| As of Date | Start Date | End Date | County | Deaths INVOLVING Covid-19 | Deaths from All Causes |
| 8/11/2021 | 1/1/2020 | 8/7/2021 | Buncombe | 536 | 5,276 |
Additionally, both Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County Schools will require students, teachers, staff, and visitors to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status. The CDC data tells us that no one aged 0-17 years has yet to die of the Wuhan virus in North Carolina. Further, you can see from the data that the virus has killed a total of 358 children under 18 years during this same 20-month period across the entire country. Three times that number of deaths resulted from pneumonia or influenza in this age group during this timeframe.
| Jurisdiction | Age Group | Covid-19 Deaths | Pneumonia or Influenza Deaths |
| North Carolina | 0-17 years | 0 | 0 |
| 18-64 years | 2,744 | 2,708 | |
| 65 years and over | 12,136 | 11,534 | |
| United States | 0-17 years | 358 | 1,067 |
| 18-64 years | 127,150 | 121,485 | |
| 65 years and over | 482,351 | 440,595 |
These numbers came directly from the CDC’s website! Check it for yourself.
We are sharing this data and these references with city & county school board members, Asheville City Council and Buncombe County Commissioners. At this point, does it make sense for us to try to understand the motives of “our leaders”? Whatever their reasons for exerting additional control over our lives, they do not appear to be dealing with us honestly.
