ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — St. Louis County Councilwoman Shalonda Webb, who previously opposed a county-wide mask mandate, said she tested positive for COVID-19 — and it was a difficult battle.
Webb and Councilwoman Rita Days did an about-face on the masking issue after hearing from so many of their constituents in north St. Louis County. Webb also spoke with FOX 2’s Elliott Davis about her personal experience fighting COVID.
“It has no respect of person,” said Webb. “We all need to be vaccinated and masked, not that I didn’t know that before. But after going through this bout, I told this to my husband, it’s like it trips with your mind. It’s like you’re afraid to be around people. I’m like let me call everybody that I was exposed to cause I didn’t know I was contagious so it’s definitely a mental hurdle in my opinion.”
“I’m grateful that I had been vaccinated, and I didn’t have a situation where I had to end up in the hospital,” Webb added. “But I had my own little strong bout with it. It just wasn’t a cold for me. It was a little bit more than just a simple cold.”
Webb and Days had initially sided with Republicans on the Council who opposed mask mandates, but the two councilwomen began getting a lot of push back from their constituents.
”I represent the community and this is what they wanted and I’m clearly in support of that,” said Days. “I’ve always contended it’s masks and it’s vaccinations, and so here we are now.”
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit against St. Louis County in an attempt to block the new mask mandate that went into effect on Jan. 5. Some council members don’t like the mandate either.
“Even though they know that the law they were passing that was not lawful, they did it anyway and they know they’re going to be overturned,” said Councilman Tim Fitch.
