Gov. McMaster refuses call for state mask rule, pushes reopening as SC ‘hot spot’ surges
As South Carolina surpassed 60,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 1,000 deaths last week, making headlines for becoming a global hot spot, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster continued his push to reopen the state against growing alarm from health experts, educators, parents and local leaders alike.
On Wednesday, the Columbia Republican — who shut down the state’s economy in April and, just as quickly in May, reversed nearly every closure order he’d issued — urged school districts to restart full-time, in-person instruction by Labor Day week. The welfare of children was his top priority, he said.
Yet McMaster reiterated, again, he won’t be closing businesses back down or requiring South Carolinians to wear masks — two solutions other governors have adopted to slow the spread of COVID-19 in their states.
A chorus of critics rang out — from health experts and hospital officials to religious and local government leaders and educators, who said clustering people together without a concrete plan of how to do it safely could result in higher daily case counts.
If the state wants to curb the virus’ spread and regain what has amounted to billions of dollars in lost revenue in business and tourism, then South Carolinians must get much more aggressive in implementing preventive measures, they said.
Critics have even included members of the governor’s own party.
“At the end of the day, South Carolinians are law-abiding folks,” said state Rep. Neal Collins, R-Pickens. “If the governor were to issue a statewide order (to wear masks), the vast majority of people would follow that regardless.”
Still, McMaster has stood firm that he will not mandate a statewide mask order, saying it runs against personal liberties and it is difficult to enforce — a sentiment this week backed up by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, an ally of President Donald Trump who only recently began to wear a mask in public.
“If you mandate masks, how are you going to enforce it?” Graham told reporters this week. “I don’t think you’re going to have the mask police going around and writing everybody a ticket. But the more you can emphasize wearing a mask the better.”
Instead, McMaster has started wearing a mask during his press conferences, he’s encouraged residents to wear masks verbally and through a social media campaign, and he’s charged counties and cities to come up with their own rules on masks, saying they’re best suited to work with local law enforcement to ensure mask wearing in public places.
“Everyone should wear a mask,” McMaster said Wednesday. “But we cannot force people to do what they don’t want to do.”
Some critics say enforcement hasn’t been a problem — and likely wouldn’t be statewide — because the announcement alone of local rules has resulted in more mask wearing.
“What we are seeing is more people are wearing a mask,” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, a Democrat who runs one of the state’s largest law enforcement agencies.
And local leaders trying to combat the virus’ spread through local rules say a directive from the top would make a difference.
“We need statewide action to really make a dent in this thing,” said Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, a Democrat, whose city council enacted a mask mandate. “Leadership matters, and we can’t underestimate the power of the microphone and bully pulpit. And if in fact you had people coming from the right and the left and the middle saying these are minor things we can do to help save lives, then the message carries more. It definitely matters.”
In Charleston, a county posting some of the highest daily cases, city leaders have enacted stiffer fines for breaking the city’s mask rule. On CNN this week, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said the city “added a little extra push to the compliance.”
“We think that this is the best practice for trying to flatten the curve, shy of closing businesses again,” Tecklenburg said Tuesday, according to the Post and Courier. “The numbers are going in the wrong direction. This is exactly where we did not want to be, but here we are.”
Mask use surged as cases did too
By the time the governor issued his first emergency order in early March, more than a dozen COVID-19 cases had been reported in only a handful of counties. A few days later, McMaster would shut down all schools and then restaurants, with cities frantically issuing their own stay-at-home orders.
By April, public beaches were closed and McMaster would issue his own stay-at-home order as the state clocked more than 2,000 total cases and more than 50 deaths.
But, not even a month later as the daily case and death count grew, McMaster lifted his order on beaches and allowed some retail stores to reopen. And by May, most stores and restaurants would begin to slowly reopen their doors to customers.
After Memorial Day weekend, health officials grew frantic as the case numbers skyrocketed, particularly among young adults.
From July 5 to July 11, South Carolina had the 6th highest number of cases per capita in the world, according to a State newspaper analysis of state and country per capita rates.
Other states also saw coronavirus case numbers surge as they reopened their economy.
In the absence of a nationally-coordinated mask strategy, some 28 states now require some form of mask-wearing in public. Mask mandates have increased as the virus has continued to rage across the U.S. now causing more than 70,000 infections a day — the world’s hottest hot spot.
In all, or nearly all states, there are exceptions to mandates, such as for medical conditions or children under two.
South Carolina remains among more than a dozen states without a statewide mask requirement.
Earlier this year, at the beginning of the nation’s response to the virus outbreak, mixed messages came from the scientific community and were echoed by government officials about the effectiveness of mask-wearing by the general public. In South Carolina, masks were recommended in April as restrictions were lifted, but early on people were encouraged not to buy N95 masks in order to allow health care workers to use them instead. But medical studies now show that masks protect other people as well as the wearer from the tiny droplets of virus that float in the air from people talking, laughing or coughing.
Greenville Mayor Knox White said the conversation about masks has “evolved” since the governor’s COVID-19 task force, Accelerate South Carolina, first met months ago in an effort to determine the safest way to open the economy back up. White has been lauded as being the first mayor to issue such an ordinance.
“We felt people really were falling off the wagon,” on wearing masks, White said. “Overall, compliance is good. I don’t think we’ve done any actual fining. Certainly, we’re looking at maybe ratcheting that up.”
White said McMaster should copy Texas’ plan, put in place after its recent surge in disease activity, requiring masks in counties that meet a certain number of cases and hospitalizations.
As other states are reversing course on reopening, the number of states without a statewide mask rule is shrinking, with governors in states that include Alabama, North Carolina and more recently Arkansas bowing to public pressure and enacting more restrictive mask orders, some with hefty fines.
Absent government action, major companies and national chains — Walmart, Sam’s Club, Publix, CVS, Starbucks, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Target, for example — also have announced mask requirements inside their stories.
The South Carolina manufacturing industry says the surge in cases is hurting manufacturers, workers and the state’s economy.
On Thursday, Sarah Hazzard, who advocates on behalf of South Carolina’s manufacturing sector, told lawmakers that if the state could get every South Carolinian to commit to wearing a mask in public for one month, the state could flatten the curve and address issues hurting the industry.
The lack of a statewide mask order has put local governments and particularly mayors of some of the state’s most populous and tourist-heavy cities in a precarious position, they say, by enforcing their own rules which oftentimes differ heavily from the counties they’re in.
“They (people) don’t know and don’t have a reason to think about where the city limits are,” said White, who told The State he shares people’s frustration but ultimately said the city’s ordinance has motivated people to comply.
With a list of business closure rules, curfews and roughly 77 different mask ordinances across the state, it’s also become a challenge for businesses to keep up, lawmakers heard Thursday from Rebecca Leach with the South Carolina Retail Association.
McMaster: One size doesn’t fit all
McMaster’s spokesman Brian Symmes told The State the “governor feels that those local officials are the appropriate people to make decisions as to their specific community” and there is no “one size fits all” scenario as it relates to masks.
A recent, informal opinion from S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, who was asked whether local governments were allowed to pass a mask ordinance, said that absent a court decision to the contrary, South Carolina towns had the right to issue mask ordinances in a time of a life-threatening emergency.
“If there were no COVID-19 pandemic or public health emergency, a court might find the requirement to wear a mask arbitrary,” Wilson wrote. “That is not the case here.”
Though the governor has faced questions about why he sees a statewide mask rule as different from other statewide rules he’s issued, his spokesman said the governor has encouraged every South Carolinian to wear a mask.
“There should be no question whether you should wear a mask right now ... when the situation warrants it,” Symmes added.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has recommended more mask wearing.
“Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus — particularly when used universally within a community setting,” the CDC’s director Robert Redfield said in a statement. “All Americans have a responsibility to protect themselves, their families and their communities.”
People who can’t wear masks are urged to use social distancing to stay safe, said Thornton Kirby, head of the South Carolina Hospital Association.
“Just try to stay away from crowds,” Kirby said. “Don’t go to places where you’re going to be in contact with other people. My mother-in-law, for example, is older and has breathing problems. So we don’t let her, we don’t put her out in public.”
In an interview with The Atlantic, the country’s lead public-health expert Dr. Anthony Fauci offered advice to states “in trouble.”
”If those states pause and say, ‘Okay, we’re going to do it right, everyone wear a mask, bars closed, no congregating in crowds, keep your distance, protect the vulnerable’ — if we do that for a few weeks in a row, I’ll guarantee you those numbers will come down,” Fauci told the outlet.
South Carolina has logged more than 63,000 cases since March, about half of those cases have been identified in the past three weeks. Further illustrating just how awful the virus can be, officials announced the state’s death toll has now surpassed 1,000.
A White House official told McClatchy that the coronavirus task force is recommending that states listed in “red zones” begin implementing more stringent protective measures. South Carolina is among those states listed.
“Dr. (Deborah) Birx (a member of President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 task force) and some other members of the task force put together that document,” a White House official confirmed. “There are measures that they can take to help slow the spread. I think what the task force and the administration has been consistent in saying is that we don’t have plans to shut down the economy again.”
Birx was in Columbia on Friday to address the federal and state response to the virus.
Many of McMaster’s initial orders still stick, including deterring people from congregating in groups of more than three. In the past month, while slowly allowing businesses to reopen, he also restricted bars and restaurants from selling alcohol past 11 p.m.
McMaster repeated on Wednesday that he has absolutely no plans to shut any more businesses down.
“The governor said he is not going to hurt small businesses anymore,” Symmes said. “They’re the lifeblood of South Carolina’s economy.”
As to whether the governor is considering any further virus-related restrictions, Symmes said that the governor is “always looking for creative ways” to drive down the COVID-19 infection rate.
Local rules differ from county to city
The lack of a statewide mask rule has led to a patchwork quilt of policies and confusion on where masks are required, local leaders say.
To clear up confusion, some local governments have pushed media campaigns to get the message out, especially to younger adults who lately are driving infection numbers in the state.
“The days of turning on the TV and relying on Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley to drive the news are long over,” said Columbia’s Mayor Benjamin, who this week announced a new campaign, #MaskUpColumbiaSC, to encourage mask wearing. “You walk into a room with five Gen Zr’s or millennials and people are getting their information from 25 different sources. It’s important to be actively engaged in all those platforms and properly leveraging influencers.”
Aside from its mask rule, Benjamin said Columbia City Council has not discussed whether to go back to a stay-at-home or work order or close businesses, but said council meets next week and he would expect some conversation on the topic.
Most, if not all, of South Carolina’s smaller government leaders have encouraged masks.
But not all are on the same page over how to do it.
City leaders in Columbia, Charleston and Greenville, to name a few, have passed mask rules and report positive results.
Spartanburg County Council, for instance, adopted a resolution recommending masks. The city, however, has made wearing a mask in grocery stores and pharmacies a requirement, including employees at retail stores.
“Spartanburg County is a big county, and there’s a lot of varying different levels of contact with people,” said county council chairman Manning Lynch. “What we were telling people in our resolution is that wearing a mask is a good thing. But we’re not telling anybody you have got to wear a mask. We are suggesting it’s a good idea.”
Should there be such a mandate with enforcement, particularly for businesses, Lynch said, “I find that hard to sign up for.”
“I think that’s where the governor is coming down, people have been through enough,” Lynch said. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
In another instance, the city of Aiken’s city council adopted a mask ordinance this week with exceptions, hours after the city’s mayor, Rick Osbon, confirmed he had tested positive for COVID-19. But a few miles away in the city of North Augusta, which sits on the Georgia-South Carolina border, there is no mask ordinance but a resolution “strongly encouraging” people to wear masks in retail stores and restaurants, said North Augusta Mayor Bob Pettit.
Unfortunately, Pettit told The State, he hasn’t noticed a large shift in mask wearing since the resolution passed.
“I’ve been disappointed in the number. I would have expected for it be more (people).”
Asked why he won’t push for a rule, instead of a recommendation to wear masks, Pettit said, “Enforcement is a huge issue, and, in my opinion, if you can’t enforce an ordinance it becomes nothing more than a recommendation anyhow.”
Jarrod Bruder, head of the South Carolina’s Sheriff’s Association, told The State on Thursday that the group which represents the state’s 46 sheriffs has not taken a position on a statewide mandate and said that dealing with any COVID-19 restriction — whether enacted by the governor or local government — has become for officers more of an education effort than an enforcement effort.
“So many people are doing the best that they can,” Bruder said. “This is new for a lot of people.”
Bruder said he’s unsure whether a statewide requirement would make a greater difference, saying that from the governor down has stressed wearing a mask and, “if they’re not doing it, I don’t know it’s because they didn’t know. To some degree, they have a personal responsibility to not put themselves at risk and not to put others at risk. I don’t know that making it a criminal penalty or civil is going to do anything to change that. At the end of the day, we can’t go out there and issue citations all day long.”
In addition to citing enforcement as a challenge, McMaster also has said a mask rule would impose on individual liberties.
But there is no law or constitutional provision that would allow someone to legitimately claim that an order to wear a life-saving mask during a contagious pandemic violates anyone’s rights, according to several law professors interviewed by The State.
“It strikes me that a public health emergency is a pretty compelling reason to deprive someone of an incidental liberty,” said University of South Carolina Law School professor Thomas Crocker. “Wearing a mask — I think most reasonable people would say it’s a pretty minimal intrusion on your liberty. You are still able to go about your business.”
Doron Dorfman, an associate professor at Syracuse University College of Law who specializes in health law, said the 10th Amendment of the Constitution clearly gives states the authority to oversee matters such as the public’s health and safety.
“The state and the governors have the authority to make sure that people do wear masks to protect other people from the spread of the virus,” Dorfman said. “And there’s not a constitutional right not to wear a mask — you can buy things without going to a store.”
Knowing that masks can save lives as many people still refuse to wear one, some say McMaster should shed any reservations and enact a statewide rule.
“If someone wants to sue the state over this mask edict, so be it,” added former judge and state Rep. Gary Clary, R-Pickens.
“That is so important for our chief executive to make that decision, to order it, to show some real leadership,” Clary added.
McMaster isn’t the only Republican leader in South Carolina imploring the public to choose to wear a mask.
“I want to speak to my fellow freedom lovers out there,” said Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, in a group of Republicans joining McMaster during a news conference Wednesday to push for schools to reopen. “Freedom lovers of South Carolina, if I can wear one of these uncomfortable aggravations, I know you can, too.”
Despite his strong words, Peeler avoided calling for a statewide mask mandate.
Joseph Bustos contributed to this report.
