Why Doesn't the Former IDPH Director Know the Law?
Ngozi Ezike was confused, misled, or feigning ignorance when asked about a school's authority to mask students
The former director of the Illinois Department of Public Health showed little understanding of the state’s communicable disease code - and associated court decisions - at a University of Chicago Institute for Politics event on Monday night.
Dr Ngozi Ezike, who resigned her position in March after presiding over the agency during the covid-19 pandemic, gave a perplexed - and perplexing - response to an audience member’s question during “Rebuilding Trust and Equity in Public Health,” a conversation between Ezike and Thomas Fisher.
Video below, courtesy of @tnertz.
Transcript:
Audience question (read from livestream chat): “With a mask requirement being a modified quarantine, Evanston [Township] High School brought back a mask mandate for students and staff today. Can you comment on students due-process rights? In accordance with Illinois Health Act, which gives the health department supreme authority in matters of quarantine?”
Ezike: “So, I think maybe I would take issue with the first part that says that masks are a form of quarantine. I'm not sure that that's accurate, and so things are based on that, then it's hard for me to kind of follow that that logic.
I would say masks are a form of protection against disease. It's not the only form, but when you think about the different options in terms of how you slow the spread of a disease, you know, you can close things down and force people to physically, you know, isolate and quarantine
But then you have other measures that are less, you know, less drastic i.e., wearing a mask, which allows us to still convene, and still be in person here, still connect with others do work together.
So yeah, I just have a problem with the idea that masks are a form of quarantine.”
The Problem with Ezike’s Problem
If Ezike has “a problem with the idea” of masks as a form of quarantine, then she has a problem with the communicable diseases code that she was charged with overseeing.
The code is clear about what quarantine and modified quarantine are:
"Quarantine" – The physical separation and confinement of an individual or groups of individuals who are or may have been exposed to a contagious disease or possibly contagious disease and who do not show signs or symptoms. "Quarantine" also includes the definition of "Quarantine, modified".
"Quarantine, Modified" – A selective, partial limitation of freedom of movement or actions of a person or group of persons who are or may have been exposed to a contagious disease or possibly contagious disease. Modified quarantine is designed to meet particular situations and includes, but is not limited to, the exclusion of children from school, the prohibition or restriction from engaging in a particular occupation or using public or mass transportation, or requirements for the use of devices or procedures intended to limit disease transmission. Any travel within Illinois outside of the jurisdiction of the local health authority must be either approved by the Director or be under mutual agreement of the health authority of the jurisdiction and the public health official who will assume responsibility. Travel outside Illinois shall require written notice from the Illinois jurisdiction to the out-of-state jurisdiction that will assume responsibility.
Note that quarantine is inclusive of modified quarantine. We don’t see the word “mask,” but we do see “use of devices or procedures intended to limit disease transmission.” Judges in five Illinois counties* have issued rulings that confirm a mask or face covering, such as those that schools have required students to wear, is a “device…intended to limit disease transmission.”
Funny enough, Dr. Ezike seems to agree. She said, “…masks are a form of protection against disease,” and an “option” for “how you slow the spread of a disease.”
Illinois’ Department of Public Health Act makes clear who has the authority (supreme authority, in fact), to issue orders of quarantine to individuals or groups of individuals: The Illinois Health Department of Public Health and - by extension - local health departments.
[The State Department of Public Health] has supreme authority in matters of quarantine and isolation, and may declare and enforce quarantine and isolation when none exists, and may modify or relax quarantine and isolation when it has been established.
Not ISBE.
Not your local public school board.
Not city/village mayors.
Not the Governor.
That’s why the person posing the question to Ezike at Monday’s event asks her about Evanston Township HS’s reinstatement of masks. The Evanston Health Department has not issued modified quarantine orders to the school’s 3,000+ students.
The Source of Confusion?
Ezike’s confusion may stem from the illegal actions her old boss, J.B. Pritzker, took to change “quarantine, modified” from the communicable disease code altogether. In late summer 2021, thanks to several court cases around the state, parents were learning about what the code actually said and started fighting not only the forced masking of their children, but unlawful quarantine directives from their schools.
The Governor and his agencies didn’t like parents calling the bluff, but knew the law and code wouldn’t be changed by using the normal legislative/administrative processes. As a workaround, Pritzker made the changes through an executive order that gave cover to emergency rules filed by IDPH.
The Illinois General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) could have — and should have — objected to the filing, but failed to do so for reasons I can’t fathom.
Fortunately, thanks to a case brought by parents in 140+ districts across the state, the illegality of the Governor’s & IDPH’s move was called out in February, by Judge Raylene Grischow of Sangamon County. You can read more about that ruling and subsequent events in Greg Bishop’s coverage here and here, but the bottom line is, those emergency rules are gone, and “modified quarantine” is back in the code.
Hoping for Clarity
I’ve long contended that, whatever else a mask is or isn’t, anything a school requires a child to wear makes it part of the school’s dress code, which also makes it subject to religious objection under Illinois law.
It’s unclear where in the law Ngozi Ezike, who’s been named President & CEO of Sinai Hospitals, believes masks “fall," if anywhere — or if she understands what due process means, in the context of the communicable disease code. (Her Chicago counterpart, Alison Arwady, regards the latter as a nuisance that applies only when parents won’t obey dictates.)
I’m sure Dr. Ezike is a lovely person to have brunch or play tennis with. She also strikes me as poised, smart, and compassionate, if easily-controlled by political interests. Sadly, two years of being paid as Pritzker’s pandemic mouthpiece have distorted her view of Illinois citizens’ rights - and public health’s power.
Here’s hoping the Stockholm Syndrome wears off and Ngozi Ezike someday realizes that she and others broke the law, in more ways than one.
*Adams, Clinton, Effingham, Macoupin, Sangamon