Emergency Executive Proclamation 2020-005 in Jacksonville, Florida mandates masks at all indoor gatherings, but not really.
Anybody who thinks it will make folks safe at the upcoming Republican National Convention should consider the case of Florida state Rep. Cord Byrd.
Call it a bare-faced truth.
On Thursday and then again on Saturday, Byrd was seen maskless along with a maskless majority at indoor GOP gatherings in the city where Proclamation 2020-007 supposedly applies.
Byrd did so even though he had already received a lesson in the perils of such gatherings. He was among those who were required to self-isolate in March after attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, where the participants included a New Jersey doctor who subsequently tested positive.
Thursday’s event was a fundraiser for GOP state legislators at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club. So many of those in attendance were ignoring the mask edict that one lobbyist about-faced at the entrance and left.
But, as reported by Florida Politics, another lobbyist stayed, as if we were still in pre-pandemic days. The second lobbyist got a reality check on Sunday in the form of symptoms associated with COVID-19.
A lobbyist is nothing without connections, and this one was able to get both a test and a near-instant result on Monday while others in the city too often have to wait five days or more. The lobbyist was at least sensible enough to notify the folks who organized the event.
Florida House speaker-designate Chris Sprowls personally alerted every fellow representative who had been in attendance. He later told the press that he advised them to self-quarantine and get tested at their first opportunity.
But his call to Byrd was two days too late. Byrd had already been maskless with a maskless majority at a lead-up event thrown by the RNC host committee at the Epping Forest Yacht & Country Club. Vice President Mike Pence flew in to thank these party stalwarts for their efforts in preparing for a convention that many are coming to see as madness.
In recent days, GOP national luminaries such as U.S. Senator Chuck Grasssley have made it known they do not consider the RNC safe to attend. Also bowing out is Rep. Darin LaHood of Illinois, his state’s chairman of the Trump Campaign.
“Everybody just assumes no one is going,” LaHood told The New York Times.
But the Trumpian base as represented by the crowd outside Saturday's event remains as enthusiastic as they were maskless. The fearless faithful cheered and waved American flags and TRUMP / PENCE signs as the vice president’s motorcade arrived. Florida was logging a record 15,249 new COVID cases that day, the most of any state since the pandemic began. And there they were, smiling faces uncovered, packed considerably less than 6 feet apart. Two cops gazed impassively upon a mass defiance of Proclamation 2020-005.
Lest Pence be placed at undue risk, the tonier souls who actually entered the building had their temperature checked. They were offered masks that most of them did not use.
Inside, a floor grid marked off 6-foot areas that seem to have been largely respected in Pence’s immediate vicinity. Byrd later said he waited until the end to pose for a picture of himself and his wife standing shoulder to shoulder with two other couples. Byrd posted the photo on Twitter, but a barrage of disapproving tweets apparently prompted him to take it down.
One person not in attendance was Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, who had pushed hard for the RNC to come to his city. He had also instituted the mask mandate.
Curry had since been exposed to somebody who tested positive and was still self-quarantined with his family on Saturday. He was represented at the event by his chief of staff, Jordan Elsbury.
“They did have social distancing squares set up,” Elsbury later reported at a Zoom press conference. “So, social distancing could in fact take place at that location.”
He went on, “As it relates to the mask order, it is very clear masks are required or mandated where social distancing cannot take place. They were able to accommodate social distance at that location.”
Elsbury seemed to have found a loophole in his own boss’ rule. He was suggesting that it only mattered whether social distancing could take place, not whether it actually was being observed.
The loophole was repeated in an email to The Daily Beast from Nikki Kimbleton, the mayor’s Director of Public Affairs/Communications: “Our only comment at this time: The event was set up with markers 6 feet apart (on the ground) and provided sufficient social distancing. This is consistent with our current order that does not require masks indoors if you are able to social distance.”
She was asked, “Being able to socially distance distinct from actually doing it?”
She did not reply.
On Monday, Curry emerged from self-isolation and held a press conference via ZOOM. He was asked about Saturday’s event.
“At that point, I was in quarantine in my house,” he said.
But Curry added that the event was attended by his chief of staff, Elsbury, who promptly came on via Zoom and affirmed that social distancing had been possible at the event. He did not say, nor was he asked, whether it had been observed.
Curry was then asked about Byrd and the tweeted photo of the couple standing shoulder to shoulder.
“People taking photos of people and sharing them all over social media,” Curry said as if he were answering. “People shaming each other. I just don’t think it’s helpful. I’ve got a mask ordinance in place. I’ve asked people to comply with that order and be responsible and smart. And I’m going to continue to do that.”
Oh.
Curry was asked how fundraising for the RNC was going.
“It’s definitely in the tens of millions,” he said.
There remained the question of safety. The Florida daily total had declined to 9,194, the lowest in a week, but deaths were up to 133 in a day, a record. Duval, which encompasses Jacksonville, was down to 354 new cases, also to the lowest new cases in a week, but still way up from two weeks ago. Curry described his current plan: “Continue to monitor community spread, work with our hospitals and their ability to handle patients, which they can do,” he said.
He reiterated the importance of washing your hands and social distancing and wearing a mask.
“Oh, by the way, If you see people in public together that maybe don’t have a mask on, but are three or four people, that could be a family that are in a household together every day,” he said. “Check yourself on the shaming of people and blasting people all over social media. Let’s try to come together as a community.”
Meanwhile, COVID Cody was presumably self-isolating again, this time after learning a lobbyist at Thursday’s event had tested positive, but not before going maskless with Pence. Cody did not respond to a request for comment.
Cody should be back among us in two weeks unless he falls ill. He will have fewer GOP events to attend.
“Further gatherings in the near future have been canceled,” Speaker-designate Sprowls told the press on Monday.
But there is always the RNC on August 24, and some in the GOP are saying it may be held outdoors. COVID Cody will no doubt be right in there, bare-faced.
Unless somebody closes Curry’s loophole in his own mandate.
