Wisconsin Senate votes to overturn statewide mask mandate, but Milwaukee's will remain

The Wisconsin Senate on Tuesday approved a resolution to overturn Wisconsin's statewide mask ordinance, despite warnings from health experts that doing so will undermine efforts to control the coronavirus. The resolution to override Gov. Tony Evers' emergency order requiring masks will now head to the Assembly, which appears likely to approve it. The Assembly has scheduled a vote for Thursday.

Republicans contend that Gov. Tony Evers overreached his authority by passing multiple emergency declarations addressing the pandemic. Resolution author Steve Nass, a Republican from Whitewater, said at Tuesday's Senate session that Evers "never came to the Legislature and asked for an extension of any of those emergency orders."

If passed by the Assembly, the resolution would mark the first policy change the state Legislature has passed addressing the pandemic since last March. Since then more than 5,000 Wisconsinites have died from Covid-19.

The resolution would not overturn local mask mandates like Milwaukee's or Dane County's, but it would make Wisconsin one of just two states in the country without an active emergency order addressing Covid-19. Senate Democrats argued that overturning the mask mandate would cost lives and prolong the pandemic.

The move to repeal the mask mandate comes as Wisconsin continues to report thousands of new Covid-19 cases a week, and as more infectious strains of the virus that could rapidly lead to more deaths spread across the country. The first new case of a more infectious strain of the virus was confirmed in Wisconsin earlier this month.

The move was overwhelmingly opposed by health organizations, which cited evidence that masks are the most effective way to prevent the spread of the virus outside of vaccinations. Organizations representing hospitals, doctors, nurses, EMTs and firefighters weighed in against overturning the mask mandate. "Mask-wearing is one of the few tools we have in our arsenal to help prevent spreading Covid-19 even further than it already has," Bud Chumbley, CEO of the Wisconsin Medical Society, said in a statement.

At least 40 other states have statewide mask mandates.

Republican Sen. Dale Kooyenga of Brookfield broke from his party to vote against overturning the mask mandate, saying that he feared eliminating the mandate could delay schools in the state from reopening. "I'm going to stand with the health care providers in my district," Kooyenga said.

The Journal Sentinel reports that some of the lawmakers who authored or co-sponsored the bill have frequently downplayed the thread of the virus or made false or misleading statements about the efficacy of masks. Some lawmakers, who did not wear masks in the chambers, repeated similar inaccurate claims during Tuesday's session.

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes tweeted that repealing the mask mandate would be "basically an insurrection against public health," and Sen. Kelda Roys, a Madison Democrat, described the vote to overturn the mask mandate as "a gift" to the coronavirus.

The Centers for Disease Control advises that "people age 2 and older should wear masks in public settings and when around people who don’t live in their household.​"