Prairie State Wire

As Gov. J.B. Pritzker extended his emergency powers, school districts across the country have started reinstating masking guidelines. 

The most recent emergent "recommends universal masking only in communities with high community COVID-19 levels" and notes that universal indoor masking, including in K-12 settings was lifted earlier in February, a time when Pritzker lost a battle to keep kids masked.

"On July 12, the Gov. JB Pritzker signed Executive Order 2022-16 regarding health care worker vaccination and testing," the Illinois Department of Public Health announced. "The following are emergency rules adopted by the Department in response to Gov. JB Pritzker’s Gubernatorial Disaster Proclamations and Executive Orders related to COVID-19. The emergency rules for the following parts filed with the Secretary of State and will be published during July in the Illinois Register by the Secretary of State." 

The renewed emergency powers and the power they hold come to the forefront as schools across the country have started reinstitution which many courts have deemed is unconstitutional.

“It’s at least encouraging that many even in the scientific or medical community have moved on from masking, tacitly acknowledging that there are no benefits,” Ian Miller reports on his Unmasked Substack. “But as feared, there are seemingly limitless amounts of politicians, health officials and local administrators willing to re-engage in COVID theater. Just in past few days, a number of cities and school districts have announced their intentions to reinstate mask mandates. Los Angeles, the San Diego Unified School District, Athens, Georgia, Lincoln, Nebraska…all have returned or will soon return to masking to some degree.”

Pritzker’s most recent emergency order includes vaccine and testing requirements for health care employees and other industries. 

“The Illinois hospital community appreciates the governor’s actions today limiting the COVID-19 testing mandate for health care workers to high transmission counties,” A.J. Wilhelmi, president and CEO of the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, said according to Myradiolink.com. “This order will help hospitals maximize the use of resources for patient care, while simultaneously continuing to operate with reasonable and effective infection controls to remain safe places for patients, visitors and health care workers.”

It was under emergency powers that Pritzker sought to keep kids in masks indefinitely even after a downstate court ruling overturning the mask mandate on constitutional grounds, The Center Square reported.

“Pritzker should not be able to unilaterally extend his emergency powers, and certainly should not be able to do so indefinitely. What started as a necessary emergency response has become 790 days of rule by executive order,” Illinois Policy argued back in May.

State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), a candidate for governor in the Republican Party, said that Illinois no longer needs a state of emergency noting that it “is one of only a handful of states with an emergency order still in place. The virus is not going away any time soon, but the governor’s executive emergency order needs to go away,” Prairie State Wire reported.