PHOENIX โ A lawmaker persuaded the Arizona House to let businesses ignore mask mandates to stem COVID spread partly by arguing they werenโt needed decades ago to stop the spread of AIDS.
On a 31-28 party-line vote Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House approved legislation that says business owners need not enforce any state, city, town or county requirement for people to wear a mask.
The measure now goes to the GOP-controlled Senate.
The sponsor, Rep. Joseph Chaplik, a first-term Republican legislator from Scottsdale, said his House Bill 2770 would give businesses the choice of whether to enforce the mandates that many communities already adopted.
He said consumers then would have the option of deciding if they want to do business there.
โItโs about the individual rights of these business owners as Americans,โ Chaplik said.
The vote came over the objections of several lawmakers who said the measure ignores evidence of how masks, properly worn, help curb the spread of the coronavirus that has so far killed half a million people in the United States, including more than 16,000 in Arizona.
Rep. Randall Friese, a Tucson Democrat who is a physician, said masks are part of the โvery basic, important tools,โ along with hand-washing and social distancing, to curb the spread.
Chaplik, however, argued that the mandates are an overreaction and that society has managed to survive other viral outbreaks without masks.
For example, he cited HIV โthat was going to wipe our global destruction of human bodies with AIDS.โ
โWe heard about that in the โ80s,โ Chaplik said. โYet no masks were required.โ
Medical consensus is that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is spread through exchange of bodily fluids, usually through sexual transmission or through the sharing of infected needles. It is not spread by air or water, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Chaplik went on to tell colleagues to look at whatโs happening elsewhere, as he tried to disprove the claims that masks help prevent COVID-19 spread.
โNebraska never had a mask mandate,โ he said. He said the same is true in places like Mississippi and Georgia.
โI would think that based on these arguments these states would have dead people piled up all over their state because no one else would be living because no one has masks on,โ Chaplik continued.
Rep. Bret Roberts, R-Maricopa, made a similar claim. Roberts said heโs heard a figure that something like 90% of Arizona is covered by some local mask mandate, even though there is no statewide mandate.
โIf they work, how are people still catching COVID?โ Roberts asked.
Other Republicans who voted for the bill did not openly challenge the effectiveness of masks, properly worn, in preventing the spread of disease.
Instead, they said the legislation is a matter of individual rights.
โIt allows adults to be adults,โ said Rep. Kevin Payne, R-Peoria.
Rep. Travis Grantham, R-Gilbert, echoed that sentiment.
โThe bill doesnโt say โmasks donโt work,โโ he said. โThe bill gives business owners ... the right to make a decision.โ
Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, had a slightly different take.
โThis bill is simply about not making 16-year-old waiters and waitresses police officers enforcing a criminal mask statute,โ he said.
Rep. Diego Rodriguez, D-Phoenix, said Chaplik is wrong in arguing that mask mandates are an example of government overreach.
โMask mandates are a textbook example of the government ensuring one of its fundamental purposes, which is guarding the public health and safety,โ Rodriguez said. He said allowing people to ignore such an order sends a bad message.
โWhat you are essentially saying is that individual business owner has the right to place every other member of his community at risk of infection,โ Rodriguez said. โIt wonโt matter if other businesses insist on a mask if two or three or even one seller decides not to use a mask because you nullify the effect of the unified effort.โ
But Rep. David Cook, R-Globe, said the purpose of the bill is simple.
โItโs driven to the free-market and property rights issue given your constitutional rights to pursue your dreams in this country and in this state,โ he said.
This is a difficult decision, said Rep. Joanne Osborne, R-Goodyear, who owns a jewelry store with the family name.
She said her employees wear masks. Despite that, some did get sick, forcing the closure of the store.
โI have had friends die of COVID,โ Osborne said. And she said that, as a member of the board of a local hospital, she has seen the effects of the disease.
Osborne also said there are other mandates on business that are accepted, like having sprinklers and fire extinguishers.
But Osborne, who provided the crucial โ and required โ 31st vote for the measure, said she had to side with her colleagues.
Photos: Mamta Popat's Fave Five Photographs from 2020
Photos: Mamta Popat's Fave Five Photographs from 2020
Fave Five #1: Vesta Toller
Updated
Vesta Toller was alive before Arizona became a state. She was alive during World Wars I and II and the civil rights movement. Although she didnโt watch TV much, she remembers watching the 1969 moon landing. Toller turned 109 years old on December 30, 2019. In her younger years Vesta helped her father, who was a doctor, deliver babies in mine camps in the Four Corners area and was a teacher. She posed for a portrait at the Waverly House Adult Care Home on January 3, 2020.
Fave Five #2: Behind the Masks
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Michelle Arreola: "My whole life is on hold." Job interviews are postponed and the medical college admission test is on hold. Arreola is a senior at the University of Arizona. April 8, 2020.
Fave Five #3: Nasal Swab
Updated
Cheri Carr grimaces as she receives a nasal swab while getting tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a drive-thru testing site at Escalera Health & Wellness on April 17, 2020. Carr lives in a home where one of the caregivers had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Fave Five #4: Spanish Trail Motel Fire
Updated
Cornelius Eursey watches the action as firefighters from the Tucson Fire Department battle a three-alarm fire at the Spanish Trail Motel in the 300 block of E. Benson Highway on June 15, 2020. Eursey is a resident of Spanish Trail Suites and was evacuated with all the other residents.
Fave Five #5: Hug Tunnel
Updated
Mary Kay Johnson, right, embraces her daughter, June Johnson, for the first time in months through a Hug Tunnel built by the staff at St. Luke's Home, 615 E. Adams Street, during COVID-19 lockdown, on Aug. 20, 2020. Linda Hollis, chief executive officer of St. Luke's Home, says the facility went on lockdown on March 11 to keep elders safe in the facility. She says there have been no positive coronavirus cases amongst the elders. Hollis learned about a hug tunnel from a news report about a long term care facility in Brazil. Family members must make an appointment for a 15-minute slot to embrace their loved one.
