LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Kentucky state lawmaker says she filed a bill seeking to ban statewide mask mandates during the coronavirus pandemic to get the “discussion out in the open.”
Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, introduced Senate Bill 158 last week, a measure that would outlaw state face covering requirements during a state of emergency for COVID-19 and its mutations, or any other virus or disease. If it becomes law, mask orders would be left to local officials.
The bill would prohibit state laws, regulations and executive orders from enacting such mandates in all Kentucky counties. Gov. Andy Beshear (D) issued a statewide mask order for many public places last July and has been extending it every 30 days since then.
Southworth said her goal is to “relieve our state of the broad-based mandates that really don't take into consideration the nuances and needs of individuals and their communities.” She argued that mask wearing already varies, with some people using them less in smaller cities and counties.
In an interview Monday, Southworth also suggested there’s a lack of scientific consensus about how effective masks are against COVID-19.
“If masks help so much with the flu, why are they not helping with COVID? Because COVID has been going up. Meanwhile, we are still wearing our masks, right? So maybe masks don't help with COVID. But they help with the flu,” she said.
“But we're wearing them for COVID. But we're not really thinking about the flu. … It's all over the place of what works and doesn't work. I think everybody's still in the discovery stage.”
Experts believe measures in the fight against COVID-19 – such as mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing – are helping keep flu cases down this season, WDRB News reported last month.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends people wear face coverings in public settings, gatherings and other events, as well as places where they’re around others.
In a scientific brief published last November, the CDC cited data claiming that multi-layer masks, if worn properly, can block up to 70 percent of virus particles and droplets. It also estimated that people without symptoms may account for 50 percent of COVID-19 spread.
“Those are just two examples of scientific points where it proves that wearing a mask is effective when it’s done regularly and all the time, even before people realize they have symptoms or have COVID,” said Roanya Rice, public health director of the North Central District Health Department, which oversees Shelby, Trimble, Spencer and Henry counties.
Rice, who was not commenting on Southworth’s bill, said the statewide mandate has provided consistency for local officials across Kentucky. Otherwise, she said, “I think what you would see is 120 counties doing it 120 different ways.”
As of Monday, 95 of the state's 120 counties were labelled "red" -- the most severe designation based on COVID-19 spread. That means there were an average of more than 25 cases per 100,000 people per day over the past week.
It’s not clear if the Kentucky Health Departments Association plans to take a position on Southworth's bill. The group’s president, Sara Jo Best, public health director of the Lincoln Trail District Health Department, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
But in general, the state policy is “a good thing,” said A. Scott Lockard, public health director of the Kentucky River District Health Department in southeastern Kentucky and the state association’s past president.
Without it, Lockard said, it’s likely that some places would have been slow to enact mask requirements – if at all.
“Whoever is that top executive, I feel like it’s a tool they should have in their toolbox when all the science and the public health professionals say this is what we need to do,” he said. “They should be able to do that to protect the people of the Commonwealth.”
Beshear said in a statement that retailers and other industries asked him to support a mask mandate because science showed it would protect employees and customers.
“Wearing a mask is the number one thing that we can do to protect ourselves and each other. If we won’t have the ability to implement a mask mandate more people will die. That is not me creating fear. It is proven,” he said. “Tennessee and the Dakotas, which declined to mandate facial coverings, have had two to four times as many deaths as Kentucky. We shouldn’t limit our ability to protect people in the middle of a pandemic."
Southworth said she did not consult local health officials before filing the bill, but she said she has had a “front row seat” in the health industry for years, as a result of her father working as a chiropractor, then later in "holistic reflexology."
For a time, Southworth said, she helped her father in the office.
Her bill, which has not yet been sent to a committee, would exempt from the ban people who are "required by a state licensing board for an individual health care practitioner to wear a facial covering for the delivery of health care services.”
Southworth, who is in her first term as a senator, is sponsoring a bill that would bar employers from requiring employees get vaccinated and prohibit discrimination against workers who refuse vaccinations. She also is a sponsor of a measure that would exempt students of independent schools from mandatory vaccinations for reasons that include religious or conscientiously held beliefs.
She said her mask mandate bill attempts to address the intersection of public health and personal liberty.
“It's the same question we have with clean air? Same question we have with clean water. Same question we have with a variety of property rights, you know, mining and different things,” she said. “We have to figure out, you know, where's your space versus my space? And when we have to be responsible for ourselves. We can't always have, you know, just mandates, mandates, mandates.”
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