A Toothless Mandate: Sedgwick County's Mask Order, July 8 and 9, 2020

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Media

Title (Dublin Core)

Description (Dublin Core)

After the city of Wichita decreed compulsory mask-wearing, the Sedgwick County Local Health officer issued an emergency order overriding the County Commission's decision to not make masks in public mandatory. The first order states that no penalties will enforce the mandate's provisions, while the second, issued the very next day, adds religious institutions to the list of exempted parties; a hot button issue that saw Governor Laura Kelly's administration besieged by lawsuits and accusations of abuse of power during the statewide lockdown. Therefore, these texts are products of the political tensions that hobbled Kansas's response efforts in the face of a surging COVID-19 crisis, with state and local leaders, most if not all of whom identified as Republicans, opting for non-existent counter-measures that prevented "executive overreach," but allowed the virus to flourish.

Date (Dublin Core)

July 8, 2020

Creator (Dublin Core)

Garold Minns, M.D., Sedgwick County Local Health Officer

Contributor (Dublin Core)

Aaron Peterka

Partner (Dublin Core)

Northeastern University

Type (Dublin Core)

Text

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

English Government Local

English Clothing & Accessories

English Public Space

English Public Health & Hospitals

English Religion

English Health & Wellness

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

Sedgwick County

Kansas

mask

health

executive orders

Collection (Dublin Core)

English Law Enforcement

Religion

Linked Data (Dublin Core)

Stay Strong, Wichita

Date Submitted (Dublin Core)

07/10/2020

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

07/10/2020

07/24/2020

07/27/2020

08/07/2020

02/05/2021

Item sets

Covid 19

This item was submitted on July 10, 2020 by Aaron Peterka using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive

Click here to view the collected data.

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