Louisiana gets differing views on masks from public officials

Should we wear face covering in public? Will masks prevent the spread of COVID-19? Or is the current Louisiana mask mandate an infringement on individual rights?
Those are the questions facing Louisiana people as COVID-19 cases surge. And we’re getting mixed messages from elected officials.
Public health authorities are much closer to unanimous in their view that masks work.
Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a proclamation effective Monday requiring masks indoors or in outdoor settings where social distancing isn’t possible; closing most bars; and limiting gatherings to 50 or fewer people.
Edwards cited the surge in COVID-19 positives and, just as important, in COVID hospitalizations since mid-June after two months of steadily declining numbers. The number of positives has grown from about 47,000 June 15 to more than 84,000, and the number of hospital beds occupied by COVID patients has more than doubled
Public compliance will help avoid the need to return to stricter measures, the governor said.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is self-quarantined and has supported some of Edwards’ public health initiatives recently, issued an opinion saying that Edwards’ orders “do not appear to serve achieving any type of goal or mission in a manner consistent with statutory and constitutional provisions.”
The mask requirement, bar closures – the opinion repeatedly refers to “bars” in quotation marks – and crowd limits are too vague, Landry wrote.
The attorney general also objected to language in Edwards’ order that puts much of the burden for enforcement of the mask requirement on businesses that must decide whether people without masks have valid exemptions. Landry said the governor is trying to turn businesses into “enforcement arms.”
Edwards responded at his Thursday press conference that he is acting within his power to protect public safety.
“The order I issued (effec-tive) Monday is in effect,” Edwards told reporters. “It’s mandatory. It’s in effect.”
The governor said that in conversations with Dr. Deborah Brix of the White House Coronavirus Task Force on Monday and Tuesday, she made it clear that the three best options for slowing the Louisiana COVID resurgence are a mask mandate, closing bars and limiting crowd sizes.
Eight conservative state lawmakers requested Landry’s guidance on the governor’s order.
In his opinion, Landry made it clear that he didn’t want to cast doubt on the wisdom of an individual’s choice to wear a mask or take other COVID precau-tions.
State Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Gray and the Louisiana House representative for portions of eastern St. Mary, didn’t seem as sure at a St. Mary Chamber legis-lative luncheon Wednesday.
Americans have seen the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention change its guidance on the use of face masks, she said. And there is doubt about the effectiveness of masks in blocking the coronavirus, saying some feel it’s like trying to keep a mosquito away by using a chain link fence.
The CDC says the use of masks can prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The American Medical As-sociation, the American Hospital Association and the American Nurses Association issued on July 6 what some media accounts characterized as a “plea” for the public to wear masks in public.
At Thursday’s press conference, Dr. Alex Billioux of the Louisiana Department of Health cited a CDC study of what happened when two hair stylists in Springfield, Missouri, both of whom were COVID positive without knowing it, continued to work.
They came into contact with 139 customers and employees in eight days. All, including the stylists, wore masks as required in Mis-souri. Tests showed none of the 139 people were infected.
A reporter’s question at Thursday’s press conference centered on the validity of the state statistics on COVID infections, including claims that people who have tested positive show up multiple times in the figures.
Each person who has tested positive for COVID-19 appears in the state reporting only once, Billioux said. Sometimes sister hospitals will independently report the same positive more than once, but the duplicates are weeded out either automatically or manually, he said.
Billioux pointed to what he said is a social media campaign over the last week to undermine faith in the accuracy of COVID numbers.
“These kinds of stories I think are insidious and pernicious and, quite frankly, scary from a public health standpoint because I don’t think there’s a wide-spread effort to raise num-bers.
“We certainly have nothing to gain from that,” Billioux said.
Another dig at state COVID statistics came from the Red River Parish Office of Homeland Security.
The Red River officials said they found duplicates in the list of reported positives, lowering the actual number of COVID cases from 96 to 58.
But Martha Whyte, the medical director for Louisiana Department of Health Region 7, insists the actual number is 98.
The state provides the names of people who have tested positive to first responders as a safety measure.
While those reports may include the results of duplicate positives, the case count listed for the parish does not, Whyte said.
Also at Wednesday’s Chamber event, Amedee said she knows of cases in which people who died from causes unrelated to COVID-19 are listed as COVID-related because the victim had tested positive at some point.
The Louisiana Department of Health hasn’t replied to a request for a response to that allegation. Billioux didn’t address the question directly at Thursday’s press conference.
Louisiana isn’t the only state grappling with the mask issue.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott imposed a statewide mask requirement, much to the chagrin of some of his conservative colleagues. Some cities in hard-hit south Florida have imposed mask requirements of their own. But in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp has ordered cities and counties not to impose their own mask mandates.
Kemp has filed a lawsuit to stop the mask mandate imposed by the Atlanta city government.
Starbucks, Walmart and Target are among the major retailers who have announced they will require customers to wear masks.