For Gregory Walkington, wearing a medical mask in public is a way of protecting his 30-year-old daughter. Due to a developmental disability, Walkington’s daughter has high medical support needs leading to frequent hospital visits and a kidney donation from her father. After the kidney surgery, she is also especially vulnerable to infection, making it necessary for her family to mask.
Walkington is not alone. One in four adults in the United States has a disability, which could make them more vulnerable to health conditions and diseases compared to the general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I need to protect my daughter,” said Walkington, the family transition project director for The Arc of Illinois, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “She will die if she gets a heavy case of COVID, and it’s that simple.”
In October, Walkington was approached by Care Not COVID Chicagoland to support the creation of a bill that would guarantee the protection for his family and everyone in Illinois to wear masks. Walkington said the bill’s origin “sparked a personal touch.”
Care Not COVID is an advocacy group with the aim of making healthcare settings safer for medically vulnerable individuals. Its right-to-mask bill is now billed as the Protective Medical Equipment Freedom Act, or HB3853.
Sebastian Nalls, a policy analyst at Access Living, has helped craft the bill’s language. Nalls said that the bill prevents discrimination against individuals who choose to wear protective medical equipment, ensuring that no one is denied service, employment or access to public spaces because of their health precautions.
Nalls said the bill was created in response to local attempts to ban masks and the testimonials of individuals who had been denied service, lost jobs and experienced harassment for wearing face masks. The bill’s language was crafted through discussions involving community stakeholders and at-risk individuals, he said.
Nalls said some external stakeholders had concerns, such as law enforcement and businesses.
“We spent a lot of time working with those stakeholder groups to really create some amendments that were good with our coalition partners but also (address) the needs and the concerns that they had with the legislation,” Nalls said.
Nalls said certain concerns with the bill are due to the recent politicization and polarization of masks in the country. He said masks have “almost become synonymous with the idea of lockdowns and mask mandates.”
The bill protects only medical masks, including N95 masks and respirators — not all facial coverings. The bill does not protect the right to wear facial coverings like ski masks or balaclavas, Nalls said.
“We need a bill like this,” Nalls said. “We are codifying rights for people.”
The bill was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly by state Rep. Hoan Huynh (D-Chicago) on Feb. 7. The legislation, he said, would safeguard the civil liberties of everyone without costing taxpayers money.
Huynh said every individual should have the right to wear protective medical equipment without an obligation to disclose their health status and that he hopes that the bill will be passed by the end of the year.
“If this bill gets to pass this year, it will send a signal and a message to the rest of the country that we believe in science, we believe in medical masks in Illinois,” Huynh said. “Anyone who wants to wear it should be able to.”
Megan Doherty, co-leader of Care Not COVID Chicagoland, said the law would be a landmark and the first of its kind. Doherty said she recruited Illinois residents to sign witness slips in support of the bill, reached out to state legislators to co-sponsor or vote for it and spoke out on its bipartisan appeal.
Doherty said there are many different vulnerable populations who face worse health care outcomes than others. As someone who is immunocompromised herself, she said she was particularly concerned about the threat of mask bans.
“It’s not only immunocompromised people who would benefit from this,” Doherty said. “Elderly people have a much greater likelihood of worse outcomes from a COVID infection and people who are pregnant.”
Walkington said that many individuals would benefit from the passing of the bill. He said that he continues to be impacted by the memory of the pandemic and watching otherwise healthy kids die from COVID-19.
Allowing people to wear masks would allow them to re-enter society, invest in the economy and work without the fear of getting themselves or their loved ones sick, Walkington said.
“It’s not a mask mandate. It’s just you can wear it for your own self protection,” Walkington said.
After being sent to the state’s Judiciary-Civil Committee, the bill returned to the Rules Committee in March, where its progress has since stalled. Advocates are hopeful to pass the bill by the end of the year.
Email: evelynheath2027@u.northwestern.edu
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