Los Angeles County on Thursday announced it is reimposing its indoor mask mandate regardless of vaccination status.
The new mask mandate will go into effect at 11:59 on Saturday night, July 17th.
There are 10 million people in Los Angeles County and health officials are reimposing the mask mandate over 400 hospitalizations.
Embattled Governor Gavin Newsom begged Californians to get vaccinated during a presser in Bell Gardens on Wednesday.
“I cannot impress upon you more the power of getting vaccinated,” Newsom said. “If we. want to extinguish this pandemic, this disease, we’ve got to get vaccinated. Period. Full stop. You’re seeing again around the rest of the world, read the headlines in Indonesia right now. Read the headlines in Portugal right now. Read the headlines in the United States of America right now.”
The new mask mandate in Los Angeles County is not going to help Gavin Newsom as he faces a recall election this September.
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in North Texas, and in most states across the country, the largest union of nurses in the U.S. is asking the CDC to recommend everyone wear masks again, whether they are vaccinated or not.
"It doesn't give us any pleasure to say, 'I told you so.' It just doesn't," said Jean Ross, RN and president of National Nurses United. The union represents more than 170,000 front line workers across the country.
In a six-page letter to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the organization asked the CDC to change its current guidance on mask-wearing and infection control related to COVID-19.
The CDC's current guidance, which says fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask, "failed to account for the possibility—which preliminary data from the United Kingdom and Israel now indicates is likely—of infection and transmission of the virus, especially variants of concern, by fully vaccinated individuals," the letter reads.
The current CDC guidance is as follows: "fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance. except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance."
The nurses union asked the CDC to reinstate the recommendation for everyone to wear masks, whether vaccinated or not, to update health care infection control to recognize COVID is spread by aerosol transmission, and to track infections in health care workers and the fully vaccinated.
"I understand the desire to have a 'nice summer,' but we are shooting ourselves in the foot," said Ross. "We see the handwriting on the wall here."
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