People were invited to call in to ask questions during the live forum, which featured a Penn doctor and Chester County health official as guest panelists.

During the Houlahan public forum on Friday, several questions from citizens hit on masks. No one spoke against masks or vaccines during the conference call, although one man questioned the efficacy of masking children with healthy immune citizens and developing lungs for eight hours a day while back in school.

Like the flu for decades past, governments at home and worldwide are warning people that COVID, a respiratory illness which morphed into a global pandemic at the dawn of 2020, has mutated. There are several variants to-have-emerged this spring and summer around the world, with the Delta variant making headlines internationally in places like France as early as June. The Delta variant, according to Yale, was first reported in December 2020, and within months became the dominant SARS-CoV-2 strain in England and India. In November 2019, a whistleblower revealed the first human death from SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China.

A Congressional report on the origins of SARS-CoV-2 has yet-to-be-released.

“What we heard from experts today couldn’t be clearer,” Houlahan said, “the vaccines work, and they are our best weapon against (COVID), including the Delta variant.”

Prior to the town hall event on Friday, Houlahan said, “From the beginning, we’ve always maintained that science and facts must guide our path forward. While our community continues to lead not only the Commonwealth but also the nation in vaccinations, the rapid spread of the Delta variant through our population is cause for concern.”

Experts agree that the Delta variant is more contagious however there is debate regarding if the strain is possibly less deadly in comparison to the novel 2020 COVID-19 strain. Delta variants now represent approximately 80 percent of all new SARS-CoV-2 cases in the U.S.

As viruses mutate, they become less lethal, according to Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins.

SARS-CoV-2 has a survival of 99 percent worldwide, on average.

Local scientist Shannon Grady warns masking causes physical harm via hypercapnia.

“Mask wearing will create acute and chronic health conditions and exacerbate existing medical conditions,” she said. West Pikeland resident Grady said she waited on hold to ask a question during the town hall but she wasn’t called upon.

“Prior research has overwhelmingly shown that there is no significant evidence of benefits of masks, particularly regarding transmission of viral infections, and that there are well-established risks,” Grady said.

Grady said her stance on masking has zero to do with politics and everything to do with science and human health. Not only is oxygen homeostasis essential for survival, Grady said, but hypoxia plays an important role in the pathogenesis of frequent and severe pathologies including myocardial and cerebral ischemia and cancer.

“Mask wearing causes a disruption to the homeostasis of all humans whether acute or chronic. The physiology of human gas exchange is cited ad nauseum in scientific and medical literature. Humans have evolved to breathe levels of 20 to 21 percent oxygen and 0.03 to 0.04 percent carbon dioxide for human survival and maintenance of homeostasis. Disruption of homeostasis can lead to numerous signs, symptoms, and disease states and each human is unique in the signs, symptoms, and diseases they develop in response to a disruption in homeostasis,” Grady said.

“Mask wearing will create acute and chronic health conditions and exacerbate existing medical conditions,” she said.

During the Friday public forum with Houlahan, many people spoke up in favor of mask wearing, including the congressional representative.

“As we have said from the beginning of this pandemic, it is ultimately the decision of local school boards to set policy for their schools,” said Rebecca Brain, public information officer for the Chester County Commissioners’ Office.

Further, Chester County isn’t mandating a return of wearing masks in public places, following the new CDC guidance issued this month which recommends that vaccinated people wear masks in public.

West Chester and Downingtown school districts this past week issued mandates that children and students wear masks when returning to school for the beginning of the 2021-22 academic year. There is also an ongoing federal mandate all students wear masks while on school buses.

State health and education departments in Harrisburg recently issued guidance to assist local leaders on further COVID-19 mitigation measures in Pennsylvania schools, as previously reported last week. Yet ultimately, sans any state or federal emergency mandate, the decision remains up to schools rather to enforce masks mandates or not.

“The county will not issue any mandate,” Brain said. She added that Chester County is not considering any vaccine mandates or requirements to show proof of vaccine. Further, there is no mask mandate in play to enter or work inside Chesco government buildings, either, as of press time.

Still businesses such as Starbucks, and many more national chains, again require that both employees and customers wear masks again.

Houlahan said during the virtual town hall that many people have reached out to her office with concerns regarding the Delta variant.

She encouraged listeners on the call to encourage friends and neighbors to become vaccinated.

In Pennsylvania, approximately 53.3 percent of the population has taken at least two dosages of COVID-19 vaccine, equating to more than 6.826 million people, as of press time.

“The best thing we can do is to wear masks and to be vaccinated,” the congresswoman said.