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For a second time on Monday, the Adams County Board of Supervisors were approached about implementing a mask mandate in county buildings and chose not to do so.

Unlike the mask mandates adopted last year under a COVID-19 emergency proclamation, the mandate would only apply inside county buildings such as the courthouses and county offices and would only apply to those inside these facilities.

Therein lies the question of what would happen to those who don’t obey this mandate. This exact discussion ensued when the county and state tried to implement mask mandates in all public facilities, including inside local businesses. When it came to enforcing it, the state graciously left it up to the local officials, police and sheriff’s departments to figure it out.

There is this notion that a mask mandate is a tactic used to fearmonger people so the government can take away an individual’s rights.

This notion is ludicrous. The fact that officials have been unwilling to enforce mandates up to this point it is proof enough of that. It’s a far cry from asking someone to wear a mask to requiring someone to take a shot in their arm.

After considering all that has taken place in the past year, when Supervisor Kevin Wilson openly stated, “I don’t want to wear a mask and I’m not wearing one,” can anyone blame him? It’s uncomfortable and no one wants to wear them. Those that do wear them do so because they want to protect their own health and the health of their fellow human beings.

A mask is not a political statement, though many seem to mistake it for one.

While Wilson and Wes Middleton were the first among Adams County supervisors to start voting against mask mandates, there was a time when the decision to have a mandate in the first place — before COVID-19 vaccines were so widely available — was unanimous.

While many national, state health officers and local doctors disagree, a few physicians have said they think that masks are not effective at stopping Delta from spreading. If masks do not stop you from sharing germs, then why have physicians worn them at every clinic and hospital for ages before there was a pandemic?

Mask debate aside, Wilson and those physicians have still strongly urged people to be vaccinated, with strong statistics backing its effectiveness.

If you don’t feel comfortable getting vaccinated, you can still help by choosing to wear a mask. It’s a choice that you make that could turn this pandemic around or lead this community to its own destruction.