Wolf and Levine want it ‘socially unacceptable’ to be caught without a face mask

Pennlive ^ | 2 July A.D. 2020 | David Wenner

[lightman]

Having people look at you, knowing they consider you a lawbreaker and a health threat.

Looking at yourself, knowing you risked passing a disease that could kill someone’s grandparent or chronically-ill spouse.

Those apparently are the harshest punishments Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine hope to impose on violators of their new order to wear face masks in most indoor and outdoor public settings to help block the spread of COVID-19.

They were pressed this week on exactly what penalties apply to those who violate the order, such as someone entering a store without a mask and refusing to put one on if asked to do so by management. Wolf stated repeatedly he has no expectations that state police or local police or anyone else will enforce the order. Neither he nor Levine even knew the exact penalty if someone were prosecuted.

“We just need to make it socially unacceptable to do that, because you are putting everyone else at risk,” Levine said.

Wolf steadfastly insisted that people will do the right thing for the right reason — just as they do when they stop for stop signs, refrain from smoking inside buildings or abide by rules to wear a shirt and shoes inside establishments.

“I think there’s been much too great a focus on what’s the law enforcement mechanism and not enough on what’s in my self-interest,” he said, likening it to the safety reasons that cause people to wear seatbelts.

Pennsylvanians have lived for months under an order to wear face masks in most public settings. With COVID-19 cases rising in the state, Wolf and Levine toughened the rule this week with a new order requiring a mask in most outdoor settings when it’s impossible to consistently stay at least six feet from others. There are exceptions for things such as breathing conditions or work that would be hazardous while wearing a mask.

The new order to wear masks raises assorted questions, such as how far businesses are expected to go in enforcing the order within their premises, and whether they could be held responsible for violators.

Michael Dimino, a law professor at Widener Law Commonweath, said there are “good arguments on both sides” regarding whether Wolf truly has authority to impose the order, and whether a prosecution would hold up in court. It would take a court case to know for certain, he said.

Dimino likened Wolf’s order to what he called a “soft law” that conveys the idea that something is wrong but offers little in the way of punishment.

“The governor is trying to encourage people to behave in a certain way and he’s hoping the public will pressure each other to conform,” he said. “Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t.”

With Wolf saying he doesn’t plan to enforce the law, he risks being accused of selective prosecution if he ever does, said Dr. Robert Lennon, a Penn State College of Medicine associate professor who also has a law degree.

“I appreciate that the governor is in a tight spot,” Lennon said. “If he tries to enforce it, people will be up in arms. But if he doesn’t enforce it, it’s just kind of a nothing burger.”

According to Dimino, a business owner has no reason to fear being held responsible if a customer refuses to wear a mask.

A more plausible fear, he said, would involve a non-mask wearing customer coughing on people, and another customer saying they became infected at the business and suing the owner. Dimino noted it would be a tall task to prove an infection took place at a specific time and location.

Interestingly, a business could easily have someone arrested for not wearing a mask, according to Dimino. If a store owner said all customers must wear a mask, and someone refused, the owner could order the person to leave the store, which is private property. If the person refused to leave, the owner could call police and have the customer arrested. But the crime would be trespassing -- not violating the face mask order, he said.

Meanwhile, businesses are stressing over how to support the law while avoiding confrontations with defiant customers while at the same time doing right by customers who wear a mask and expect to be kept safe.

“I dream about masks at night because it has become such a pressure source on our society,” said Andrea Karns, vice president of sales and marketing for Karns Foods.

Signs at the entrances of Karns stores tell shoppers they must wear a mask. People who can’t wear a mask because of a health reason or some other exception aren’t expected to wear one, she said.

Those who don’t wear a mask are offered a free one and asked to put it on. People who refuse are asked to leave. The company wants only managers to deal with people who don’t wear a mask, Karns said.

She said, “confrontations are a very real fear. They have occurred over the past few months when team members have asked shoppers to wear a mask. I have to imagine that it will happen in the future – not just to us but to any business that makes that request.”

Karns said it’s “frustrating” that the governor is saying everyone must wear a mask while at the same time saying there are no plans to enforce the order.

“We are working harder today then we were yesterday on putting mask enforcement in place – but our team members are put in a trying situation. Very bold statements are being made regarding the requirement of wearing masks and support in enforcing those would be welcome,” she said.

The medical school’s Lennon and a colleague, Dr. Lauren Van Scoy, are involved in research looking at the willingness of people across the county to follow the various public health recommendations related to COVID-19. They are finding it varies according to things like geography and ethnic community.

Looking at survey results from thousands of Pennsylvanians in March, Van Scoy was shocked by “how political the responses were” regarding even things like hand washing and social distancing. Since then it has grown considerably more political, with masks becoming the newest partisan flashpoint.

Both researchers stressed that elected officials such as President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who sometimes seem supportive of masks but are often seen without them, send a mixed message that undermines the scientific and public health reasons for wearing masks.

Asked whether, in times such as these, sound and necessary public health strategy can still prevail in the United States, Lennon said, “It doesn’t help that we’re in a federal election cycle.”

[tomkat]

Same here, but with the caveat that's true   ;-)

Wouldn't matter either way tho, cuz my attitude would be F U regardless.

                           

(with big kudos to the creator of that meme !)

[JerseyDvl]

It is always unacceptable for a Levine to go out without a mask. Pandemic or not.

[tomkat]

Ha !

HTML doesn’t get big enough for the +1 that deserves !