Peoria Standard

Peoria Patriots Tea Party founder Jenny Keller thinks there may be more than what meets the eye with COVID-19 restrictions.

“Well, it's just weird to me that we've never been mandated anything about the flu, but suddenly for this we are,” Keller said. “So I think it's a form of control. They've taken away our choice.”

Without conferring with any other lawmakers in Springfield, Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently reenacted a statewide masking mandate in all indoor dwellings for all residents over the age of 2. Around that same time and with schools across the state set to return to in-person learning, Pritzker announced he was reimposing a universal masking mandate for all public and private school students. The edict also applies to all teachers and staffers, with those not yet vaccinated required to get tested for COVID-19 at least once a week.

Keller argues the governor’s one-man army approach to dealing with the issue is far from being in the best interest of the state.

“I think they should be giving us information so we can make a good choice and each person should choose,” she added. “This mandate thing is really like a heretical thing. Just mandating, it's like being a tyrant. A lot of people in Congress like (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi, they're dictating,  that's a good way to put it.”

As Pritzker’s latest edicts are kicking into gear, some are questioning the overall effectiveness of masks in protecting one’s self against 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.”