Abstract
Face masks have become the bulwark of COVID-19 prevention in the US. Between 10 April and 1 August, 2020, 33 state governors issued orders requiring businesses to require their customers and employees to wear face masks, and persons outdoors who could not social distance to do the same. We documented the policies and enforcement actions for these policies in each of the states. We used governors' orders and journalists' news reports as our sources. Our results show that the states used a variety of state and local (county and municipality) agencies to enforce business prevention behaviors and primarily local law enforcement agencies to enforce outside mask-wearing behaviours. In particular, law enforcement officers demonstrated a strong preference for educating non-mask wearers, and indicated a reluctance to resort to civil penalties that were enacted in the state orders. Businesses expressed a preference to have government agencies enforce non-mask wearing behaviours. But there was also a widespread reluctance on the part of local law enforcement to resort to legal remedies.
Highlights
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control first recommended the wearing of face masks on April 3, 2020
In this paper we summarize the introduction of state policies in those states which issued statewide mandates, and how these mandates are being enforced
We used newspaper and broadcasting articles as our primary sources. We identified these articles using Google searches ending August 4 with the following keywords: ”COVID-19”, “State” (e.g., “Pennsylvania”) AND “mask order” or “mask mandate” AND “enforcement” OR “education”
Summary
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control first recommended the wearing of face masks on April 3, 2020. On April 8, The Governor of New Jersey was the first to issue a general, statewide mandate, which required “workers and customers to wear cloth face coverings while on the premises”. By August 1, 33 state governors had issued state-wide mask wearing orders. The resulting pattern of regulations regarding mask wearing across the states is a welter. There is wide variation in the design of the ordinances, including whose behavior is being targeted, what is expected of them, when they must observe the ordinances, where their behavior is to be regulated, why they must submit to these orders, and how violations will be enforced. In this paper we summarize the introduction of state policies in those states which issued statewide mandates, and how these mandates are being enforced
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