EDITORIAL: ‘Mandate’ a mostly misused word

Published 2:30 pm Friday, January 14, 2022

The word “mandate” was mentioned many times during the Baker County commissioners’ work session Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 12, at the Baker County Events Center.

The word was used in reference to the executive orders Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has issued requiring people to wear masks in indoor public spaces, and some people to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

But this gathering was a blatant

example of how the “mandate” for masks is hardly mandatory. Few of the 40 or so people in the audience wore a mask, even though the county’s announcement for the event stated that masks were required and that “all individuals in attendance at meetings under the control of Baker County are expected to comply with this rule.” As for vaccinations, affected employees in many agencies, including Baker City and the Baker 5J School District, were allowed to avoid inoculation by claiming a religious or medical exemption.

The ostensible topic of the work session was a request by a local group, Baker County United, for commissioners to adopt a resolution declaring a “constitutional county.” Several speakers contend that such a resolution would give the county clout in flouting Brown’s mandates. It’s certainly reasonable to emphasize the importance of elected officials to fulfill their oath to uphold both the state and federal constitutions. But as Commissioner Bruce Nichols, who participated in the work session remotely, pointed out, the governor’s executive orders, however onerous and ineffective they might be, have so far withstood legal challenges. To defy those orders, Nichols believes, is to violate his oath. “I too do not like mandates, forced vaccinations. and the ongoing never-ending rules,” Nichols wrote, a comment that was read aloud during the work session.

At the same time that work session was going on, hundreds of students in Baker schools, and their teachers, were in classrooms, wearing masks. Some people who addressed commissioners criticized the mask requirement for schools. But medical experts say that masks, though far from perfect protection, can potentially help reduce the spread of the virus. Masks certainly don’t hurt. And one thing is indisputable — Baker students have been in their classrooms for the entire school year so far. Which is where they ought to be, regardless of the pandemic.

Yet the biggest threat to continuing in-person school, as well as sports and other extracurricular activities, isn’t a government mandate. It’s the omicron variant, which, though less virulent than previous strains, is more infectious. More than a dozen school employees missed work on Jan. 12, some of them due to COVID-19 infection or exposure.

There’s reason to be optimistic that the current surge in infections won’t last as long as previous trends. And statistics show that omicron is less likely to cause severe illness or death — especially in people who are vaccinated. In that respect, omicron is similar to the delta variant. Brown seems to understand that, despite record numbers of cases this month, the situation isn’t so dire as raw numbers might suggest. The governor hasn’t issued any new, restrictive executive orders in response to omicron.

And as the Jan. 12 work session made clear, individuals are still deciding whether or not to wear masks, never mind the governor’s putative “mandates.” The government isn’t sanctioning people for their decision, either.

But wearing a mask, in situations where doing so might reduce the risk of transmitting this virus, isn’t capitulation to a draconian government edict. Baker students and school staff aren’t supplicants — they’re doing what they can to keep schools going and, potentially, spare themselves and others from illness.

If the county doesn’t intend to enforce the mask “mandate,” then it ought to cease implying that it will do so by posting signs or stating, in announcing public events, that it expects attendees to comply.

— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor