A county commissioner in Kansas who opposed mask requirements, curfews, and other lockdown measures has been diagnosed with COVID-19. But Sedgwick County’s Jim Howell isn’t going to let the virus that killed 210,000 Americans shake him from his belief that mandates aren’t necessary. “This hasn’t changed my opinion,” he told The Wichita Eagle. Howell, a Republican, is the fourth county official to contract the coronavirus in recent weeks, though he’s not sure how he got it. Kansas is in the throes of a COVID-19 surge.
