GOP lawmaker’s positive test cancels session
HARRISBURG » A Republican lawmaker’s positive test for COVID-19 on Thursday prompted legislative leaders to immediately cancel the day’s Pennsylvania House voting session, and human resources workers were deployed to trace his personal contacts to see if others should be quarantined.
Rep. Paul Schemel, RFranklin, issued a statement saying he began to feel sick Wednesday and got the positive test result Thursday. He then notified House officials. He was most recently in the Capitol on Tuesday.
Although state House employees are all required to wear masks in the Capitol, that does not apply to the representatives themselves. Schemel’s press release did not say if he had been wearing a mask while inside the Capitol’s public spaces.
He declined an interview request.
A significant number of House Republicans have continued to be maskless inside the Capitol, and some have defiantly ridiculed mask wearing as an overreaction or ineffective.
During a gun rights rally on the Capitol steps on Tuesday, several House GOP members were not wearing masks amid the crowd of a few hundred at the outdoor event. Others were maskless in the Rotunda and hallways.
Rep. Russ Diamond, RLebanon, who has been vocal in his opposition to mask wearing, said Schemel’s test result would not change his own behavior or his belief that masks do not help prevent the spread of infection.
“I’ve seen him wearing a mask,” Diamond said. “So you know, it is what it is.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top health officials have reiterated their pleas for people to wear masks and observe social distancing guidelines to stymie the spread of the virus.
Schemel, 48, a lawyer who lives in Greencastle, is completing is third term in the House, representing a rural area where Interstate 81 crosses the Maryland state line. Messages seeking comment were left with his House spokesman and at his law firm.