Rep. Place: COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force - Commentary

Say just about anything but a mandate. Because I know speaking for my communities, government mandates don't tend to build trust. And that's something I've been saying from day one. I mean, I've had legislation heard dealing with mandates and vaccination cards and things like that. And one of the things I tried to do for your director was, quite frankly, set her up for softball questions. In my mind, they're softball questions. There are common questions that are being asked in the community that I think can be directly answered and explained. But they weren't. And my frustration obviously showed the fact that these very direct, simple questions were asked, but not directly answered. And folks in these communities, whether it be Newport, Tiberton, Pearlville, Central Falls, they're not unintelligent people. They can understand the reasons behind things. They can also see when someone is giving a BS answer. I mean, I think some of these communities have some of the highest BS meters in the state. I mean, whether it just be mine or be Central Falls, wherever it is, I think some of these everyday hard working people have the highest BS meters off the record. And unfortunately, this is my feedback. Stop BSing on certain things. Trust us to understand the real answers. Some of the answers I ask, I already have background information for. They're easily accessible. They're known. It's a simple question. And if you beat around the bush, people are going to be hesitant. They're going to cause the hesitancy. The hesitancy, so you want my answer, Neil, in terms of how do I think, you need to build the trust in these communities. And you build these trusts by being direct and honest with them. Don't BS them. And that's what I got. That's what I got as to the answers. Because again, my colleague down here asked a very direct question. And it wasn't answered. And I had to then take up my time for my constituents to follow up and try to pull that information out. And it should be known, these are questions, you want to know, these are questions that are being asked. I'm asking these questions because people who are hesitant are asking these questions. People who have taken the vaccine are asking these questions. And they want these answers just to relax them. But if you BS them, it doesn't relax them, it doesn't build trust. So just be direct and honest. So that's, you asked ideas, that would be my idea. When someone makes a presentation and a question is asked, be direct and be honest. Trust that we understand the reasons. So answer the question, then give us a reason. If you start to give us a reason but never answer the question, again, the BS meters go off. So there's my answer to your question.