Federal lawsuit calls Tulsa’s mask ordinance unconstitutional and unhealthy for citizens
Some Tulsans are taking steps to halt the mandatory use of face masks in Tulsa because they deprive people of oxygen.
Tulsa has mandated the use of face covering in attempts to stem the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
Doctor Robert Zoellner, Clay Clark, Doctor James Meehan, MD, and several Tulsa-based business owners have filed a federal lawsuit against Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, the Executive Director of the Tulsa Health Department, Bruce Dart and the Tulsa City Council to immediately repeal the mask mandates that they claim are causing healthy people to become sick while trying to prevent the spread of a disease that is not a deadly threat to children and the vast majority of the general population.
According to the lawsuit, “The Court should invalidate and repeal Ordinance No. 24408 of the City of Tulsa (the ‘Tulsa Mask Mandate’) because face coverings create an ‘oxygen-deficient atmosphere,’ which the United States Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) defines as an ‘atmosphere with an oxygen content below 19.5% by volume.’ Doctors, scientists, and other medical professionals will line up in this court to demonstrate and testify that face-covering lower oxygen levels in the immediate atmosphere of someone wearing face coverings to less than the Department of Labor’s required 19.5%, normally within less than ten (10) seconds.”
The Tulsa businessmen and doctors cite OSHA’s website that reads, “…rulemaking record for the Respiratory Protection Standard clearly justifies adopting the requirement that air breathed by employees must have an oxygen content of at least 19.5 percent. A lesser concentration of oxygen in employees’ breathing air could endanger them physiologically and diminish their ability to cope with other hazards that may be present in the workplace.”
Zoellner and Clark cite U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who recently stated, “If you look at under age 18, the mortality rate is about one in a million, if you look at age 18-45, the mortality rate is about 10 in 100,000. Above that, it increases, but interestingly, it is still pretty small, and the vast majority – even people up to 65 years of age, it may well be between 95 and 99 percent have a very mild case of this.
“So I’m not saying it’s a benign disease, people do get sick and die from this. But your chances are good. We shouldn’t live in fear forever. We should take normal precautions, we should assess the risks. People who are older should take more precautions, but we shouldn’t, you know, cover the faces of our children and say you’re gonna have to live your whole life with your mask on.
“We shouldn’t do that, and the government definitely shouldn’t mandate it.”
Clark hosts the radio show ThriveTime.
Health Department Executive Director Bruce Dart, who is not a physician, was named as a defendant in the 33-page lawsuit.
The suit also states that forcing Tulsans to wear masks has been proven to “cause irreparable physiological damage” after only 15 seconds of wearing a face covering.
The suit states that plaintiffs and their employees experienced “migraine headaches, shortness of breath and dizziness” while wearing face masks.
The lawsuit also claims that Tulsa’s mask ordinance is unconstitutional violates the 10th Amendment, Ninth Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause, Fourth and Fifth amendments.
Coronavirus update
As of Monday, there had been 53,522 confirmed cases of the Chinese coronavirus in the State of Oklahoma.
State health department officials said 821,289 tests had be conducted in Oklahoma. Of that figure, 759,335 of the tests were negative.
There have been 53,522 positive tests in Oklahoma but some officials point out that statistic may include patients who have had several positive tests.
As of Monday, there were 578 Oklahomans in hospitals with the virus and 730 patients had died since the start of the pandemic.
Tulsa County has 12,391 confirmed cases with 126 deaths and 10,776 recovered patients.