Dupage Policy Journal

Bartlett Tri-County Tea Party founder Rick Newton is taking a stand against the state’s COVID-19 restrictions.

“This government feels that they own the responsibility for telling you how to take care of yourself,” Newton said. “And it's just not the way I want to live my day. I want to die with a smile on my face. And I would like to be among not only among like-minded people, but also trying to bring some sanity back across the country.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently reinstated a statewide masking mandate requiring all residents over the age of 2 to wear face coverings in indoor settings.

On the heels of also reimposing a universal masking mandate for all public and private school students, the governor is justifying his actions by insisting “the state is running out of time as our hospitals run out of beds."

With the school mandate, all teachers and staffers will also be required to wear masks, with those not yet vaccinated required to get tested for COVID-19 at least once a week.

Newton said he’s not surprised to see the number of restrictions across the state back on the rise.

“I am very much in a way, part libertarian,” he said. “I believe that myself, my family's health, is my decision. I worry about the fact that we're going to draw the line in the future.”

Pritzker’s latest mandate goes into effect as some are questioning the overall effectiveness of masks in fending off the virus.

“We agree that the data supporting the effectiveness of a cloth mask or face covering are very limited,” University of Illinois professors Lisa M. Brosseau and Margaret Sietsema wrote on the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) website. “We do, however, have data from laboratory studies that indicate cloth masks or face coverings offer very low filter collection efficiency for the smaller inhalable particles we believe are largely responsible for transmission, particularly from pre- or asymptomatic individuals who are not coughing or sneezing.”

As of Sept.14, the Illinois Department of Public Health reports there have been 24,367 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 1.6 million total cases.