Keep up the emails! Let's save lives & support health care workers!

Speak up & show up to help prevent COVID-19!

As you've probably noticed, the Flathead Valley has been in the news a lot lately -- and not for good reasons. 

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to climb, and we need YOU to raise your voice and speak up for better protections. Anti-mask activists led by Annie Bukacek have been working overtime to spread misinformation and create confusion and division in our community.

We need to speak up and support local leaders and health care professionals who are saving lives every day. 

If you can attend public meetings (county commission, Board of Health, city commission), please show up and make a short public comment. If you only have time to write a quick email, that's perfect! Here are talking points you can use. 

Time for only one email or meeting? Contact the Board of Health!

Email the Flathead City-County Board of Health by 9am Thursday, November 19, and/or show up to make a public comment at their meeting from 1-3pm on the 19th. Click here to leave a comment or get the link to the meeting. 

Quick & easy email

• We want to make sure the new health officer supports science, public health, and public safety, not anti-mask propaganda.We're really grateful for leaders like Bill Burg and health department staff who are doing their best to protect the community.

Longer statement

• We want to voice our support for a health officer who makes decisions based on science, public health, and public safety, not anti-mask propaganda. 

• We are grateful for Bill Burg’s leadership. His risk analysis might have needed refinement, but it was clearly an attempt to help people understand and prepare for the COVID-19 crisis we’re facing. 

• You support the hard work of health department staff members who have been working long hours to try to educate people and keep COVID-19 from overwhelming Flathead County.

• Especially grateful for the way the health department has worked with schools and businesses to keep everything open. Our children and economy are going to suffer if businesses and schools close because teachers and employees are too sick to come to work.   

Online comments https://flathead.mt.gov/health/contact_us.php or https://flatheadhealth.org/administration/

Have time for another email? Contact the Flathead County Commission!

Quick & easy email

Covid-19 is real, and it’s about to do serious damage to Flathead County residents. We need local leaders to take this seriously and listen to warnings from local health care workers and health department staff.

Longer statement

• Covid-19 is real, and it is an emerging crisis. Cases and hospitalizations are up, and we cannot dismiss this. 

• We need leadership from all over the county, including the county commissioners. 

• Bill Burg tried to provide a risk analysis to help people understand the crisis we’re facing and support the health department, which has been working extremely hard to save lives. and Phil Mitchell very unprofessionally called this analysis and comments from a local nurse “bullshit.” (Click here and start listening at 15:14.)

• It’s strange that Mitchell has not called out the amount dangerous misinformation that Annie Bukacek has been spreading. In response to her attempts to undermine the work of the health department with anti-mask propaganda, the county commissioners have responded that she has freedom of speech and that she hasn’t committed a crime.

• Online comment form here: https://flathead.mt.gov/commissioner/contact_us.php
  

Contact info

• Pam Holmquist - pholmquist@flathead.mt.gov

• Phil Mitchell -  pmitchell@flathead.mt.gov

• Randy Brodehl - rbrodehl@flathead.mt.gov

Have more time?
Email the Kalispell Regional Hospital and the Chamber of Commerce

Kalispell Regional Healthcare
The hospital has done a great job on social media, but it would be great to have more doctors present at public meetings where anti-mask activists are spreading misinformation.

• Thank you for the wonderful public #StopTheSurgeMT campaign to wear masks, do social distancing, and have small gatherings. 

• Residents are looking to the hospital for leadership. We would like to hear from more more physicians and health care workers at public meetings and have them repeat the key points of the #StopTheSurge Campaign. Right now, anti-mask activists are dominating the public narrative and confusing people with misinformation. 

• Online contact form here - https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/ccc519027c7146c1b903b2c5cc880bcf

Kalispell Chamber of Commerce
These leaders need to know that Flathead County residents want to be seen as a COVID-19 success story, not a failure that's leading to more hospitalizations and deaths.

• COVID-19 is real, and we need local leadership to help businesses and schools stay open as cases and hospitalizations increase. 

• Lots of misinformation is being spread around the community, and that is putting Kalispell and Flathead County in the news for negative reasons. We want to be a success story, not a case study in failure.

• Online contact form here: https://business.kalispellchamber.com/contact/

We're stronger together!

Thanks to all of you who have been writing for weeks or months. There are a thousand other things we'd all rather be doing, but it's important to keep speaking up.

We know the anti-mask crusaders see this as a culture war. They're going to keep taking over public meetings and writing emails to make it look like they're in the majority.

If we don't speak up, the anti-mask agenda will be the loudest voice in the public arena.

Please reach out if you have any questions! info@loveliveshereflatheard.org