Mask mandate in Cd’A?

Mayor Steve Widmyer says city would follow health district’s lead

The decision by Boise Mayor Lauren McLean to mandate wearing masks in public starting today makes Idaho’s capital the fifth city in the state to issue such a requirement.

Like Hailey, Moscow, McCall and Driggs before it, Boise is in the midst of spread.

How would Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer handle such a decision? When asked Friday, Widmyer said the decision comes down to science.

“We are going to follow the advice of health care professionals,” Widmyer said. “This is a health and safety issue. As with any illness, you follow the advice of your doctor. They are the ones educated and trained to help you through medical issues. The same applies here.”

Widmyer, along with staff and council members, has been advised by Panhandle Health District since the beginning of the pandemic. Any advice cast or heeded, according to the public information officer for the health district, would be collaborative.

“Any decision we would make in conjunction with our board of health, Panhandle Health’s board, our county commissioners and our city mayors,” Katherine Hoyer said. “They would all be involved in those decisions.”

Hoyer added that the decisions of local leaders and the voices of health officials depends largely on how the community complies.

“Obviously, we’ve been urging social distancing, the wearing of masks, washing hands, staying home if you’re sick,” she explained, “and the health protocols that have proven to help slow transmission of COVID-19. We need everybody’s help doing this. We need everybody to take safe, preventative measures when they’re out in public.”

In order to make such a still-hypothetical decision — one Widmyer would not state one way or the other how he’s leaning — he first would have to perform some housekeeping.

His initial March 17 emergency declaration in response to COVID-19 has since lapsed, meaning he would have to once again make a similar declaration; given the rising number of cases in the area, a hypothetical second declaration would likely come without widespread scientific opposition.

While many in the area are wearing masks in public, many are not. Many on social media have railed against the wearing of masks as infringements on Americans’ rights, with some pushing the narratives that such mandates are mechanisms to test the limits of the Constitution, that wearing masks are a media invention to keep people afraid, and that wearing masks can cause physical damage.

Most health officials say the masks can help prevent the spread of the virus.

Today’s People’s Rights meeting at noon in McEuen Park, for example, will feature a speaker who will lecture on the alleged medical harms masks can cause.

“Unfortunately,” Widmyer admitted, “this issue has become a political issue. And it shouldn’t be.”