Mask debate lingers despite gov.’s mandate
One of the most divisive and visible aspects of how life has changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic is the presence of face masks.
Debate over masks rages from naysayers who question their constitutionality and supporters who note their efficacy and expect them to remain in place even as vaccine efforts against the new coronavirus continue to ramp up.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, used an executive order to institute a mask mandate that took effect July 27. The blowback was almost instantaneous; sheriffs in Sullivan, Hamilton, Delaware and Johnson counties said they would not enforce the order because the General Assembly hadn’t passed a bill for it.
Together, those four counties represent more than 60,000 COVID-19 cases and 130 deaths.
Holcomb has consistently renewed the mask mandate since July, even if he dropped possible criminal penalties for violators before it took effect.
Additionally, the mandate gave gubernatorial candidate Donald Rainwater, a Libertarian, a boost, because he was against Holcomb’s mandatory mask mandate. Rainwater received more than 11% of the statewide votes for governor.
“I’ve been wearing a mask from early on and I really believe the masks have cut down on the spread of the virus, and it shows,” said Portage Mayor Sue Lynch, noting that mass gatherings without masks have spiked virus cases.
While the vaccine rollout against COVID-19 is helping tamper cases down, Lynch said, masks are making a difference, too.
She’s also witnessed the local business community supports the mask mandate.
“The businesses have been helping. Everyone has been saying you have to wear a mask to enter their facility,” she said.
Back in mid-December, about 60 maskless people made their objections over the mandate clear with a rally outside the Porter County Administration Building in downtown Valparaiso.
They were there to protest Holcomb’s executive orders meant to slow the spread of COVID-19, as well as the stricter measures put into place by the Porter County Health Department.
Several carried yellow “Don’t tread on me” flags and other carried handmade signs, including one that read, “We will not stop standing for liberty.”
Tim Dyer is the executive director for Living Liberty United and the founder of Citizens Living Liberty United, which serves as an umbrella organization for the LLU chapters across the state. The group helped organize the rally in Valparaiso and Dyer, who lives north of Indianapolis, recently reiterated by phone what he said to the crowd that day.
“Masks are a big problem because it is the government imposing its will on the people with no constitutional right to do it,” he said, adding the mask mandate is a symptom of the problem.
The Indiana General Assembly never voted on Holcomb’s mask mandate and other orders put in place because of COVID-19, Dyer said, adding the new coronavirus was incorrectly handled by the governor from the very beginning.