Mask mandate extended for Wichita after 7-hour public hearing, protest at Century II
After a marathon of comments from residents opposed to Wichita’s mask mandate, the City Council voted to extend it by as much as another six weeks.
The council voted 5-2 to extend the mask mandate until Oct. 21 or until the COVID threat drops below the green threshold and the countywide positive test rate drops below 5 percent, whichever comes first.
Council members James Clendenin and Jeff Blubaugh dissented.
Council member Bryan Frye opposed the mandate from the start and criticized the extension, but eventually voted for it because it contained amendments that could end the mandate in as little as two weeks and turn further action over to Sedgwick County.
The city action comes close to matching a public-health order issued Wednesday by Sedgwick County Health Officer Dr. Garold Minns.
Approval of the extension followed a seven-hour barrage of complaints from 120 residents assailing the mask mandate, which has been in effect since July 3.
“We heard overwhelmingly today concern from the public,” Frye said. “What’s next: mandate hand washing, social distancing or even require vaccinations? I know there has been no discussion yet, but nobody thought we would be at this point either.”
Council member Becky Tuttle said she voted for the mandate because 58,000 people are currently out of work in Wichita and an increase in COVID would only make things worse.
She said the mask mandate is “the only way that I can see us keeping schools and businesses open.”
But she did express a desire for an off-ramp for the city to get out of regulating the local COVID response and proposed the amendment that could allow the mask mandate to end early if conditions warrant.
Blubaugh said the city shouldn’t have been involved in the first place.
“I think the position I’m at right now is I think it’s time we punt the football back over to the county,” Blubaugh said. “They’re the ones that have a health department.”
Council member Brandon Johnson disagreed. He said the point of the mandate was never to eradicate the virus, but to reduce the risk, like wearing seatbelts to reduce injuries in car accidents or using condoms to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
The vote came after hundreds of people, many with babies or children in tow, gathered in protest at the Century II Convention and Performing Arts Center, which was set up as a remote site for people to comment to the council with the City Hall council chambers still closed to the general public.
In speech after speech, the protesters demanded the council lift the mask mandate and allow everything to go back to business as usual as things were before the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Protesters pitched a tent outside Century II and hung a bedsheet sign with the words “Unmask Wichita” hand-painted on it, along with pictures of a heart, a peace sign and a surgical mask with a circle and slash over it.
About 12:45 p.m., nearly three hours into the meeting, the anti-mask protesters formed a circle around the perimeter of the indoor concert hall and joined hands in an act of civil disobedience, defying the city’s requirements for social distancing at city facilities.
Whipple paused the meeting at that point, saying he felt the protesters’ irresponsible conduct was endangering the city employees staffing the remote location. That broke up the circle of hand-holders, but otherwise didn’t affect much.
A long line of people still waited for their turn to address the council from inside a small closet converted into a makeshift teleconferencing booth.
With the exception of the city workers, almost no one inside the building wore a mask or kept any separation between themselves and others.
David Stillwell said the hand-holding circle was an act of solidarity and defiance against government overreach.
“We’re unified. Us holding hands shows that unity,” he said. “And if you’re afraid of our strength, great. ... I’m not your slave, and you don’t own me. Let’s let freedom decide who wears a mask and who doesn’t.”
The protesters’ comments followed the pattern of claims that have been made by mask opponents over the past several weeks: that masks don’t do any good; that case numbers are false, inflated and/or misleading; that almost no one is vulnerable to COVID-19 disease except the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions; and that the social, mental-health and economic effects of the mandate are worse than the virus.
A large number of commenters also assailed business limitations put in place to fight viral spread and many expressed opposition to a yet-to-be-developed vaccine for COVID-19, despite repeated reminders from the mayor that the City Council has nothing to do with those issues.
Amy Dopps, finance manager at Dopps Chiropractic, summed up a common theme of the day when she told the council: “Your health is not my responsibility and mine is not yours.”
Several said they trust God to protect them from the virus.
Thomas McDowell told the council that he is “born of God and in God’s likeness” and his body is designed to create antibodies to fight disease.
“It’s not COVID destroying families and businesses, it’s your decisions,” he said.
Persons addressing the council are ordinarily required to identify themselves for the meeting record when they speak, but amid Tuesday’s confusion, that rule went unenforced.
One man who did not identify himself called COVID-19 “a scamdemic the likes of which the world has never seen.”
He said it’s part of a vast conspiracy perpetrated by “the insect people” targeting the re-election hopes of President Donald Trump.
“It’s about vote-by-mail so that Donald Trump can’t win the election,” the man said. “That’s what this is all about.”
He also pushed a conspiracy theory that billionaire Bill Gates “is trying to mass-vaccinate everyone in the United States of America and the world, so that people can’t get into heaven because he wants to pump aborted fetus DNA into people’s bloodstreams. That’s what all this is about.”
Mary Beth Gonzalez said the mask mandate is such an affront against freedom that it compelled her to drag her four children to the protest.
“Death is a part of life,” she said. “It will always be a part of life, and I’m not saying we need to have people needlessly die, but sometimes it’s just too much. The restrictions on people and our life is just too much. And so I am here to ask you, to plead with you, to unmask Wichita, to help us keep our children from being afraid of life.”
Larry Craig, who identified himself as a small-business owner, appeared in a shirt with stars and stripes and the Liberty Bell. He called the mask mandate an example of “Draconian rules” and was one of several speakers who equated it to communist tyranny.
“I fought against communism in Vietnam,” he said. “I did not think I’d have to do it here.”
Todd Ramsey, a Wichita business owner, was a lonely voice in favor of the mask ordinance, acknowledging he was “not among friends” and would probably be booed on his way out.
He said the other speakers were either confused or misstating the science behind COVID protection.
“Why are we giving them the same weight that we give scientists and doctors?” Ramsey said.
“I am not a doctor, but I choose to listen to doctors,” he said. “The mask mandate is the best way to stave off another mandated closure” of schools and businesses, like the stay-at-home order in effect from the end of March until early May.
Several of the speakers stated medical credentials, from registered nurses to chiropractors and physical therapists.
Jessica Bieberle, a chiropractic assistant in Wichita, said masks don’t protect people “from whatever’s out there.”
“Your body and what you were given was created perfect, and that’s all you need to be healthy, as long as you take care of it and do the things you need to do — from exercising, getting plenty of sunshine and vitamin D, eating right and living your life,” she said.
After 86 speakers had finished speaking, Whipple pointed out that no speaker had a medical doctorate.
“Eighty-six, and not one medical doctor. OK, then,” Whipple said.
Many of Tuesday’s speakers expressed the opinion that if people want to wear masks to protect themselves, they can do so.
However, current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and the consensus of Minns and other area health advisers is that the effectiveness of masks comes from stopping the virus at the source — people who are either sick with COVID-19 or infected with the coronavirus who are not showing symptoms but can still spread it to others.
“Masks are recommended as a simple barrier to help prevent respiratory droplets from traveling into the air and onto other people when the person wearing the mask coughs, sneezes, talks, or raises their voice,” said CDC guidance updated Monday.
“This is called source control,” the guidance said. “This recommendation is based on what we know about the role respiratory droplets play in the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, paired with emerging evidence from clinical and laboratory studies that shows masks reduce the spray of droplets when worn over the nose and mouth.”
The city ordinance requires most persons ages 5 and older to wear masks in most public settings, including:
▪ Indoor and outdoor gatherings where it’s impractical to maintain at least 6 feet of separation between participants.
▪ When using public or shared transportation or waiting in line for it.
▪ In health-care settings, including doctors’ offices, hospitals, clinics.
▪ Inside businesses serving the general public, such as stores and restaurants when not seated at a table eating or drinking.
▪ Inside factories and other work spaces where employees are not separated by at least 6 feet between work stations.
▪ In all settings where food is prepared for public consumption.
It’s unclear how closely the council members were following the speakers. During the lengthy meeting, some council members could be seen on their cell phones, engaging social media activities and responding to text messages.
Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell, a longtime opponent of the mayor, took to Facebook to criticize Whipple during the meeting.
“Here’s the ugly truth that Mayor Whipple doesn’t want you to know: This issue is redundant. The county is the board of health and our health officer, Dr. Minns, already has a mask order in place. Full stop,” he wrote. “The mayor is trying to virtue signal that he’s the person who cares about public health and that he’s superior to the county commission. This is a sad time for city/county relations.”
Whipple reacted on Facebook during the meeting, putting a laughing emoji on O’Donnell’s post.
The difference between the city and county actions is that the city’s ordinance is more enforceable.
The city can issue citations for violations, while Minns’ order, issued under the authority of state law, could only be enforced through a complicated civil-violation process.
Answering a question by council member Blubaugh, City Manager Robert Layton confirmed no citations have been issued for violations of the city mask ordinance.
“We’ve had multiple meetings . . . with commercial business operators to talk about the requirements,” Layton said. “They’ve all complied as a result of those discussions.”
Whipple expressed frustration and said the enemy is COVID, not each other.
“I wish there was another choice,” instead of continuing with masks, he said. “I wish we had an alternative. I would do anything to not be the mayor who has to cancel every event that is fun.”
He denied being motivated by politics.
“When this (pandemic) came, I said to myself that I was going to follow the healthcare professionals and the policy experts when it came to what to do with this,” Whipple said. “And I said to myself I don’t care if I ever win another election as long as we have a chance to save Wichitans. So for some of those folks who think this is about power or I guess politics, it’s not. You don’t win political points when you close things down.”
Council member Frye ordered the protesters Papa John’s pizza and owned up to it online.
Marty Spence, owner of Songbird Juice Co. and one of the anti-mask organizers of Tuesday’s protest, posted a photograph of the pizzas on Facebook, thanking “a mystery city councilman” for the “fuel sent from the bench.“
During the meeting, Frye owned up to buying the pizza in a Facebook comment thread.
“I did it,” Frye wrote. “Should have done it for the Defend Police group a few weeks ago as well,” referencing a pro-police rally at Century II that defended a multi-million-dollar increase to police funding.
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 5:51 PM.
