COVID exposure from St. Louis County Council meeting unclear

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — Health officials say they are struggling to track down a crowd of anti-mask protesters who attended a St. Louis County Commission after one of the meeting participants tested positive for COVID-19. Hundreds showed up at the July 27 meeting to oppose a public health order requiring people to wear masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that some attendees also declared their opposition to getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Spring Schmidt, deputy director of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, said in a statement Friday that county investigators first encountered difficulty identifying people from the large crowd, then got resistance or outright silence from attendees they were able to locate.