Mask mandate defeated along party lines in Sedgwick County

The Sedgwick County Commission voted Friday evening to effectively reject a mask mandate in indoor public spaces — after multiple physicians pleaded with the commission to require face-coverings and an anti-mask activist threatened to show up outside commissioners’ homes if they passed a measure aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

The decision came after County Health Officer Dr. Garold Minns proposed requiring masks as the COVID-19 delta variant surges and local hospitals fill with younger, sicker patients.

“You’re not going to tell me what I have to wear or issue an article of clothing on my body,” said a man who identified himself as “Brett V.B.” on the county’s sign-up sheet for public comment at Friday’s special meeting.

“We will be outside your houses with megaphones,” he said. “You will not get sleep.”

“We’re very serious,” the man continued. “You did this very sneakily — when people couldn’t get off work. We’re going to show up outside your houses with megaphones. You’re not going to get sleep. We know who you are: Sarah Lopez, Lacey Cruse, Pete Meitzner, David Dennis, Jim Howell. We will show you. We don’t want this. This is Kansas. This is God’s country.”

Commissioners condemned the man’s threats and called a brief recess so commissioners could call family members to make sure they were safe.

“That’s really disturbing,” Commissioner Lacey Cruse said as the man attempted to exit the commission chambers, located at the Sedgwick County Courthouse.

“You do not have the right to threaten all five commissioners,” said Commissioner David Dennis. “I would like our courthouse police to make sure that they take care of this individual. Get his details so that if anybody is threatened that we have all of his details.”

Commissioners voted along party lines, 3-2, with Republicans — Meitzner, Dennis and Howell — voting to receive and file Minns’ order without taking action after a motion by Democratic commissioners — Cruse and Lopez — to pass the mask mandate failed along party lines.

Minns did not attend the 4 p.m. Friday meeting, which was called with 3 hours of public notice, instead appearing by phone to brief commissioners. His voice cut in and out and nearly half of his comments were inaudible.

What did get through was clear: “The delta strain of this virus has taken over our community,” he said. “It has just exploded.” He said it’s two to four times as contagious as the original strain of the virus.

Not enough Sedgwick County residents are getting the free COVID-19 vaccine, Minns said. And 97% of patients in the hospital for COVID-19 are unvaccinated. Masks could be the only way to ensure that schools remain open and that hospitals don’t get overwhelmed, he said.

Dr. Amy Seery, who works in Ascension Via Christi’s pediatric ICU, said she knows children need to be learning in-person to “develop and thrive,” but that only mandatory masks can make that possible.

“With children resuming in-person school but without masking, they are all swapping these viruses, and they are quickly going to overwhelm our systems,” Seery said. “I do not want to be in the position of trying to transfer a child who needs to be admitted for seizure to Colorado or further away because there is no capacity for them at our regional medical center.”

Commissioner Howell asked Seery about the rate of COVID-19 cases in young children.

“I’ve heard a couple times already that the rates are kind of — ‘exploding’ is the word that’s being used. Would you agree with the word ‘exploding’?” Howell asked.

“That is the correct term,” Seery responded. “I am seeing more COVID kids admitted now than ever previously before.”

Even with short notice, more than 20 speakers showed up to address the commission. Physicians and other community members urged the commission to pass the mandate. Others said they and their children wouldn’t comply.

Minns had also recommended that all businesses, organizations and nonprofits in Sedgwick County should require employees and customers to mask up.

Exemptions: children 2 and under, people with medical conditions, mental health or disability, hearing-impaired, actively eating food, drinking beverage.

In remarks at Saint Luke’s Hospital in Overland Park Friday, Gov. Laura Kelly condemned the divisive and politically charged stance some elected leaders have adopted when discussing the virus and public safety measures.

“There are people in positions of leadership, who hold influence, who have used COVID and politics to divide us,” Kelly said.

“Your actions hurt your neighbors with pre-existing conditions … your actions hurt your local businesses … your actions are hurting our teachers, who have to risk their safety every day because their students are not wearing masks.”

Minns’ proposal comes at a time when 39% of Sedgwick County residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It would have been in effect for about four weeks until Sept. 22.

Commissioners explain their votes

A state law change last year stripped local health officers of their authority to issue public health orders without approval from county commissions, often pitting public health experts against elected officials.

Masks mandates in particular have been met with pushback from people who say it violates their personal freedom, often citing debunked theories about masks causing physical and mental health problems, especially in children.

Dr. Justin Haynes, an emergency medical physician at Ascension Via Christi, attempted to dispel mask misinformation as the first public speaker to address the commission. He said he and his colleagues have worked in close proximity for a year and a half.

“I walk into COVID rooms every day,” he said. “During that year and a half, only two people out of my group of 35 doctors have caught COVID. And that’s largely because we had masks and we took precautions.”

“I definitely know that masks work because there’s no way we could have treated all the COVID patients we did, especially before we had vaccines, without all of us catching it,” he said. “For that year and a half, I’ve admitted exactly zero patients because of a complication over a mask.”

Cruse and Lopez led the charge to approve Minns’ public health order. But the swing vote on the commission was cast by Commission Chairman Pete Meitzner, who voted for COVID-19 restrictions in early 2020 but lamented Friday about having to make decisions about masks because the topic is “too divisive.”

“I think the mask order borders on, you know, close to civil unrest,” Meitzner said.

“I mean, that mask thing is very, very toxic,” he continued. “As an issue and emotional.”

Commissioner Jim Howell, who urged people to wear masks and get the vaccine but voted against all government restrictions on businesses and individuals related to COVID-19, said he voted against this mandate because he believes it is government overreach.

“I just can’t violate my principles of small government and personal responsibility,” Howell said. “At the end of the day, the government can’t solve COVID by masks. It just can’t happen.”

Lopez responded to Howell directly.

“We talk about individual rights and freedoms,” Lopez said. “What about my son, who’s 8? Where are his rights and freedoms? Because he can’t be vaccinated yet. What about your grandchildren who can’t be vaccinated yet? What about their rights and freedoms, Jim (Howell). That’s my concern right now is our kids.”

COVID-19 vaccines are only approved for children age 12 and over. Although the death rate for children below that age range is low compared to older people infected with the disease, Wichita physicians told commissioners that they’re seeing a rise in child patients who have COVID at local hospitals and worry it will only get worse as the school year continues.

“We’re just now starting school. They’re just now in a place they could easily catch this in a way they haven’t in the past 18 months. We’re going against something now that’s different than what we faced before. We don’t know what that’s going to look like. It’s an unknown with our children’s lives,” Lopez said.

Cruse said the politicization of the pandemic has kept the commission from tackling other important issues, such as homelessness and mental health.

“I’m a little shocked and, quite frankly, kind of shaken,” Cruse said. “Are you guys not shaken at the vitriol that’s happened in this building right now? Are you guys not shaken by the fact that we’re having fights with each other continually, daily over this? When if we just fought and worked toward the same goal, we could get past this and move on to other things.”

“But instead we have a hospital system that is full,” Cruse said. “We’re here today because our medical community is asking us for help. If we asked them for help, what if they told us no? What if they said — what if an unvaccinated person needed a bed and they said no?”

Dennis said vaccines, not masks, are the solution to the pandemic.

“The only thing that’s going to get us through this is we have to get people vaccinated,” he said.

“We have to somehow convince the public that we do have a tool in our toolbox that works, and we need them to become vaccinated. This issue you’ve found, and we’ve seen it today, just in this room, is very divisive. If we pass a mask mandate, it’s going to be even worse.”

Dennis said state government should be in charge of mask mandates, not county commissions.

“This is not a county issue,” Dennis said. “This is a state issue. If they want to take any action, the state needs to take it. We’re surrounded by counties that don’t have a mask mandate.”

But Dennis also said Sedgwick County government shouldn’t be in charge of mandating schools within the county, including some school districts that straddle two counties.

“One of the concerns I actually have is the kids that are under 12,” he said. “They cannot receive the vaccine right now. But the problem we have is that we’re trying to put this back on Sedgwick County Commissioners when each of those (school districts) ... have a board of education, and they can decide. I’ve heard from at least one in my district that is adamantly opposed to it. But they want us to put a blanket mandate across every single school district, and I think that’s wrong because they have an elected board of education that can make decisions for their board.”

“The Legislature needs to come back — now,” Dennis said. “And they need to figure out what we can do to move forward on this. Sedgwick County can’t solve the problem.”

This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 7:32 PM.