Amy Lavalley
Post-Tribune

MERRILLVILLE – One of the most divisive and visible aspects of how life has changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic is the presence of face masks.

Whether they are standard blue surgical, high-filtering N95s or sport a stylish pattern or saying, debate over masks rages from naysayers who question their constitutionality and supporters who note their efficacy and expect them to remain in place even as vaccine efforts against the new coronavirus continue to ramp up.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, used an executive order to institute a mask mandate that took effect July 27. The blowback was almost instantaneous; sheriffs in Sullivan, Hamilton, Delaware and Johnson counties immediately said they would not enforce the order because the General Assembly hadn’t passed a bill for it.

Together, those four counties represent more than 60,000 COVID-19 cases and 130 deaths.

Holcomb has consistently renewed the mask mandate since July, even if he dropped possible criminal penalties for violators before it took effect.

Additionally, the mandate gave gubernatorial candidate Donald Rainwater, a Libertarian, a boost, because he was against Holcomb’s mandatory mask mandate. Rainwater received more than 11% of the statewide votes for governor.

“I’ve been wearing a mask from early on and I really believe the masks have cut down on the spread of the virus, and it shows,” said Portage Mayor Sue Lynch, noting that mass gatherings without masks have spiked virus cases.

While the vaccine rollout against COVID-19 is certainly helping tamper cases down, Lynch said, masks are making a difference, too.

She’s also witnessed the local business community support the mask mandate.

“The businesses have been helping. Everyone has been saying you have to wear a mask to enter their facility,” she said.

Back in mid-December, about 60 maskless people made their objections over the mandate clear with a rally outside the Porter County Administration Building in downtown Valparaiso.

They were there to protest Holcomb’s executive orders meant to slow the spread of COVID-19, as well as the stricter measures put into place by the Porter County Health Department.

Several carried yellow “Don’t tread on me” flags and others carried handmade signs, including one that read, “We will not stop standing for liberty.”

Tim Dyer is the executive director for Living Liberty United and the founder of Citizens Living Liberty United, which serves as an umbrella organization for the LLU chapters across the state. The group helped organize the rally in Valparaiso and Dyer, who lives north of Indianapolis, recently reiterated by phone what he said to the crowd that day.

“Masks are a big problem because it is the government imposing its will on the people with no constitutional right to do it,” he said, adding the mask mandate is a symptom of the problem.

The Indiana General Assembly never voted on Holcomb’s mask mandate and other orders put in place because of COVID-19, Dyer said, adding the new coronavirus was incorrectly handled by the governor from the very beginning.

“The people were never given the opportunity to speak their concerns about the coronavirus before Gov. Holcomb issued his executive orders and mandates,” Dyer said. “The first thing he should have done is call an emergency session of the General Assembly to see what the will of the citizens of Indiana was regarding the coronavirus.”

The mask mandate never had the force of law but was executed through social pressure.

“Our government demonstrated that they can utilize social pressure on the public to impose their will without ever passing a law,” Dyer said.

Regardless of how the mask mandate was imposed, Lynch remains a believer in the face coverings and what they’ve done to control COVID-19.

“I think it works and I know there are naysayers, but we can’t be sidetracked by that,” Lynch said about wearing a mask. “Our goal should be to get this virus to go away and the masks are doing that and we should continue with masks.”

Lynch is now fully vaccinated against the virus and even though more people are getting vaccinated each day, procedures at City Hall remain in place to stem the spread. Those include mandatory masks for those in the building and bottles of hand sanitizer “everywhere,” because of concerns about variant strains of COVID-19.

While the city received some complaints about the masks, most people have been accepting of them, she said, comparing them with seat belts.

“People were not going to put that seat belt on, and now they’re part of everyday life,” she said.

This article was made available through the Hoosier State Press Association.