As the coronavirus epidemic continues to spread, lawmakers across the United States have begun issuing executive orders that mandate the wearing of face masks in public, NBC News reports.
Some of the orders stipulate fines, and even prison sentences for refusers, but police experts have responded that most of the orders lack "teeth" and that they "don't know how [we will] enforce this."
"We’re not going to solely arrest somebody because of a mask issue,” Chief Deputy Jim Gilbert of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office told The Columbus Dispatch. “But we’re going to ask for compliance verbally. We’re going to do all that we can do to de-escalate the situation and hopefully just educate the person and send them on their way (and) possibly provide them with a mask that they can take with them.”