After the weekend’s NFL playoff game between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers, former Laker Earvin “Magic” Johnson took to Twitter and shared images of leading state politicians who have continuously pushed masked mandates.
These politicians included Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
Clearly, none of these politicians have learned from Newsom’s “French Laundry” incident about hypocritical behavior when such stringent rules are enacted and enforced. The pictures became the focus of backlash from angry Californians.
The post was met with swift backlash from commenters noting that California’s universal mask mandate requires residents to wear face coverings in all indoor public spaces and in common areas of outdoor “mega-events” with 5,000 or more people, regardless of vaccination status. Los Angeles County also requires all people attending large indoor and outdoor events to wear masks, except when eating and drinking.Earlier this month, state officials extended the mask mandate through Feb. 15 amid surging cases of COVID-19.Representatives for Garcetti and Newsom said they removed their masks only briefly to pose for the photos, but wore them the rest of the game.At least three crowd shots captured by the L.A. Rams’ “FanCam” showed the mayor donning a face mask in the stands. Newsom was captured in one shot with a mask dangling from his ear, but two additional images showed him wearing his mask while seated at the game.But in many ways, the damage was already done. County residents and anti-mask groups seized on the moment to decry the politicians for their apparent hypocrisy, noting that the photos appeared to violate not only some state and county rules but also the stadium’s own mask policy, which allows for masks to be removed only to actively eat and drink.
Quite frankly, I don’t recall the “photo op” exception to the masking policies that have been implemented.
And as the policies clearly haven’t stopped the spread of the virus in its very many variations, perhaps it would be wiser for them to nix the masks and focus on getting early treatment options to their citizens.
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