Last week, Los Angeles County reinstated the indoor mask mandate for everyone because of the rise of the COVID-19 delta variant. It even applies to persons with the COVID-19 vaccine.
However, the County’s Sheriff will not enforce those rules. He cited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines on the subject of masks.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he will not enforce the reinstated indoor mask mandate because it contradicts guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.In a statement Friday, Villanueva said the department is already underfunded and he “will not expend our limited resources” to ensure residents are following the order. He instead asked for voluntary compliance.”Forcing the vaccinated and those who already contracted Covid-19 to wear masks indoors is not backed by science and contradicts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines,” he said.
However, Villanueva gave the County public health officials a suggestion.
Villanueva went on to say that while the county Department of Public Health has the authority to enforce the order, he encourages the agency to “work collaboratively with the Board of Supervisors and law enforcement to establish mandates that are both achievable and supported by science.”
And while California’s continuing response to the coronavirus pandemic continues to be a first-order fiasco, here are some graphs that put the situation into perspective. Given the increasing ineffectiveness of the experimental vaccines, perhaps the better data points to review are deaths and hospitalizations.
To begin with, in the week that led up to this “unscientific” decision, Los Angeles recorded six deaths daily on average that proceeding week.
The number of Los Angeles area hospitalizations isn’t significantly different from proceeding to this decision.
The chaser is the case number. Here is a look at the “spike” preceding this new mask mandate.
A rational and more minor power-mad set of public health officials would recognize that early diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 is working to substantially decrease the most severe effects. Additionally, it appears the vaccine at least alleviates the worst of the virus for vaccinated persons who experience a breakthrough infection.
Elected Democratic officials are wary of imposing mask mandates on a very frustrated and increasingly angry population. For example, Governor Gavin Newsom (facing a September recall election) isn’t rushing to a state-wide order while other Democrats want masks only on the unvaccinated.
Newsom, who is facing a recall election Sept. 14, loosened California’s mask mandate during the state’s June 15 reopening, bringing the state in line with the current CDC guidance stating that vaccinated individuals only need to wear masks while in transit hubs or other special settings. The state waited a full month to align with the CDC masking guidance — considerably longer than other blue states such as New York and Illinois that adopted the guidance the week it was announced — so it would not be uncharacteristic of California to be the first state to reissue a mask recommendation or mandate more cautious than what the CDC recommends.However, Los Angeles County has estimated that 99% of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths are occurring among unvaccinated residents, and even prominent Democrats question the wisdom of making vaccinated individuals wear masks.”I believe mask mandates should be only for those who cannot prove they are fully vaccinated. That’s it,” tweeted Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a Newsom ally. “Vaccines are free, safe and available. Their ‘choice’ hurting all of us, unfortunately.”
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