Editorial: Legislature will have to take up COVID

COVID-19 is in retreat in the suburbs and in much of Illinois, thank goodness, and mask mandates have been lifted.

What remains unclear, however, is whether our state government will have the tools it needs in the unhappy event of another serious variant, or new virus, that invades our lives and endangers our population.

Mandates put in place by Gov. J.B. Pritzker through the Illinois Department of Public Health have been the bandages we've used for nearly two years to save lives in the COVID crisis. They have put public pressure on people who don't care who they infect, and moreover, emphasized the real danger to human well-being from the virus.

It's fair to say they have worked pretty well, depending on where in Illinois you live. There is no doubt they have saved lives.

But a vehement anti-mask contingent in Illinois has worked to discredit the mandates and will continue to oppose them in the event of another COVID-19 surge. We had a narrow escape earlier this month, when the Sangamon County Circuit Court on Feb. 4 agreed with plaintiffs who argued in a lawsuit that the mask mandates were akin to a "quarantine," and issued a temporary restraining order to block the state from enforcing mandates in schools.

The Illinois Supreme Court last Friday vacated that TRO, a big relief to people worried about the next virus. However, it was vacated not on the merits of the argument but because it no long mattered ... the mandates had been effectively canceled on Feb. 15 when the state's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules voted not to renew them after they had expired two days prior.

Maintaining public health in Illinois is critical. Much in the same way we are outlawed from shooting each other or dumping our sewage in the public water supply, we need our leaders to be able to impose reasonable but effective rules that prevent people from causing illness or death in others by exposing them to disease.

Inevitably that duty must fall to the state legislature to put to bed the notion that mask mandates are quarantines and stave off other pitfalls that might get in the way of state government working to keep the people safe.

We do not envy them. Masks are a "third rail" in politics right now, and even citizens who agree they were necessary are weary of them. Moreover, the disturbing level of threats of violence - to legislators, school board members and others - makes it clear the subject is fraught with real danger.

Failure to provide real clarity about the specific responsibilities and authority vested in leaders - whether they be the governor, the courts or government health authorities - leaves room for controversy that politicizes health care and diminishes the ability of officials to react. Getting this done is right for Illinois, as well as its present - and future - leadership, and the legislature should take advantage of our currently improving circumstances to do it.