Missouri's Attorney General Schmitt has taken upon himself to dismantle the entire public health apparatus in the entire state of Missouri by issuing advisories to all jurisdictions that he considers mask and vaccines mandates for anyone, including school to children, to be illegal.
Schmitt issued the state-wide advisory on December 7th 2021, following a Cole County Court judge ruling weeks earlier that local health authorities are not authorized to issue public health orders because state health department is not allowed to delegate rule-making authority to non-elected officials in local health departments.
However, some school districts stated that they will NOT be following Schmitt's advisory, because they don't consider themselves bind by the decision, as their powers are delegated from locally elected school boards or the city council, not from the state.
Many local health departments, however, are halting their entire COVID response plans (including contact tracing, outreach, or even immunization) due to the December 7th letter from Schmitt. Others were thrown into confusion and seeking guidance from the state health department.
Many people believe that Schmitt, who is also campaigning for a seat on the Senate, is basically using his attorney general powers to court conservative votes and potentially harming the state in return.
Schmitt dismissed the criticism, claiming he's only enforcing the law.
