Covid-19 deaths in Mitchell, S.D., and other Midwest towns prompt mask mandates, over anti-maskers' stout objections

The death of Buck Timmins, “a mild-spoken 72-year-old who had worked with hundreds of local kids during six decades as a Little League and high school coach and referee," shook Mitchell, South Dakota, "just as its leaders were contemplating something previously denounced and dismissed: a requirement that its staunchly conservative residents wear masks,” writes Annie Gowen of The Washington Post, citing his news obituary in the Mitchell Republic.

As those at Timmins' funeral sang “Jesus Loves Me,” “the rumble of an approaching helicopter cut through the sound of the singing and the mourners’ soft tears," Gowen reports. "In Mitchell, the medical emergency helicopter, once a rare occurrence, now comes nearly every day, ferrying the growing number of people desperately ill with Covid-19 to a hospital that might be able to save them. Sirens echoing through the empty streets of New York marked the pandemic’s first phase. Swirling blades of helicopters on the American plains is the soundtrack of a deadly fall."

Buck and Nanci Timmins

Timmins' wife, Nanci, told Gowen that he fell ill Oct. 24, probably at one of the many school athletic events he attended. “You may need a mask to get in the door, but once you were inside, you looked around and there were 300 people in the seats watching volleyball, pretty much going maskless,” she said. “Mitchell, South Dakota, is a small town. We trusted each other.” But the virus isn't about trust.

Timmins never even got to a hospital, Gowen reports: “Nanci had a mild case. Buck seemed okay, too, until about a week in, when he became weaker and weaker and didn’t want to eat or drink, or leave his old brown leather recliner. . . . Because Buck was not having trouble breathing and the hospital had patients who were far sicker, he stayed at home. Nanci, a retired X-ray technologist, administered his oxygen and insulin treatments. That morning, Nov. 16, Buck woke after a restless night and called out for his wife. He mumbled something — she thought he said, 'I love you' — so she wrapped her arms around his head and said, 'I love you, too!' Just after noon, he was gone.”

One of Timmins' friends was City Council President Kevin McCardle, who ridiculed a council member when she had proposed a mask mandate, something South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has refused to impose. But Timmins was one of several well-known people to die as cases and deaths surged in Mitchell, and the council voted 5-3 for a mandate. McCardle wavered, but couldn't bring himself to vote for it, Gowen reports, after he heard at a meeting from many anti-maskers, including a National Guard member who had been deployed twice overseas "to protect our country’s freedoms — how could McCardle vote to take them away?"

Gowen reports, "Throughout the autumn, towns all over the Midwest in conservative states where Republican governors have avoided mask mandates have tried to pass their own restrictions, often prompting virulent community debate. The town of Huron, S.D., just up the road, passed one, as did Washington, Mo.  In Muskogee, Okla., the City Council finally passed a mandate after several tries; one of its pro-mask members had even wheeled in a casket as a prop."