Chief Justice defends rights of SC courthouse employees and visitors to wear masks

South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Beatty has issued an order defending courthouse employees and visitors who want to wear protective masks against the coronavirus pandemic.

“It is ordered all persons employed in or visiting county court facilities statewide may wear personal protective equipment including, but not limited to, protective masks,” Beatty wrote.

“Any person who inhibits or prevents employees or persons visiting county court facilities statewide from wearing personal protective equipment is subject to contempt for violation of this order.”

Beatty’s order about masks did not explain why he felt it necessary to issue it at this time. The State newspaper asked the S.C. Court Administration for an explanation as to why Beatty believed it necessary to issue his order. But so far, there has been no reply.

Beatty’s order came Tuesday as the nation’s death toll from the highly contagious COVID-19 virus neared 100,000, and the recommendation to wear a mask — while not debated in scientific and health circles — has become a flash point in the nation’s culture and political wars.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump, who pointedly has refused to wear a mask, ridiculed a reporter who would not remove his mask to ask a question, saying the reporter wanted to be “politically correct.” The President also retweeted a Tweet mocking presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for wearing a mask on Monday when Biden appeared at a Memorial Day commemoration.

In an interview broadcast Wednesday on CNN, Biden called Trump a “fool” for not wearing a mask and said, “Presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine.”

President Trump’s refusal to wear a mask to help prevent the spread of coronavirus goes against known scientific recommendations for the general public and also contrasts with the universal practice of wearing masks by health care workers.

“The virus can spread between people interacting in close proximity — for example, speaking, coughing, or sneezing — even if those people are not exhibiting symptoms,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in recent guidance. “CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain,” such as grocery stores and pharmacies.

Simple cloth face coverings can “slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others,” the CDC says.

In Charleston, restaurants and their social media sites have been the scene of debates over mask-wearing by customers and employees alike, according to an article in The Post and Courier.

Meanwhile, according to Wednesday’s Washington Post, the president’s refusal to wear a mask is causing divisions among Republicans, as some GOP governors and senators are making public statements about the importance of wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

COVID-19 is highly contagious, can be deadly and is spread mostly through normal exhalations, singing, sneezing or coughing.