Danielle Smith and City News Service
Los Angeles County is on track to enter the "high" COVID-19 community level as soon as Thursday, in which case an indoor mask mandate would return two weeks later, the public health director said Tuesday.
If the county continues at its current pace, masks could be mandated indoors again by July 29.
To reach the "high" category, the county's rate of daily COVID-positive patients admitted to area hospitals would top 10 per 100,000 residents.
As of Tuesday, that rate was at 8.8 per 100,000 residents.
A mandatory indoor mask mandate will be imposed if the county remains in the "high" category for two consecutive weeks -- which, under the current pace, means the mandate will take effect by July 29.
"I do recognize that when we return to universal indoor masking to reduce high spread, for many, this will feel like a step backwards,'' Ferrer said.
But she said universal masking "makes a lot of sense because it helps us to reduce risk.''
Masks are already required on all forms of public transportation in LA County and in other indoor spaces, such as health care facilities, correctional facilities and shelters.
For more information on current mask wearing rules, click here.
A universal mandate would spread the requirement to all indoor public spaces, including shared office spaces, manufacturing facilities, retail stores, indoor events, indoor restaurants and bars and schools.
Tedros called on national authorities to step up their efforts in “communicating risk”to the public, and called for a return of “public health social measures like masking, distancing and ventilation.”
Mask mandates and social distancing requirements were largely abandoned earlier this year, although some countries – among them China and South Korea – still require face masks in most public settings.
According to Wikipedia, by the beginning of April 2020, prominent national and intergovernmental health agencies and their leaders had recommended the use of masks to “reduce transmission, including the [World Health Organisation] WHO, American, European and Chinese Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and American immunologist and NIAID Director Anthony Fauci.”
By August 2020 more than 50 countries had made face coverings compulsory when people were outside their own homes “in an attempt to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus.”
In March 2021, an estimated 129 billion face masks were used per month. In April 2021, Masks4all noted that more than 40 countries had mandated the use of face masks. Masks4allwere campaigning for masks to be made compulsory in all US states because, in their unscientific, misguided and harmful view: “We need every state to enforce mask-wearing in public … If you go out without a mask, you might kill someone. You wouldn’t even know it. If you see someone out without a mask, they could kill you.”
Environ Res. 2022 Sep; 212: 113564. 2022 May 28. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113564
This shocking paper had no coverage by the state-sponsored media, even though it shows that the average CO2 levels in inhaled air with nose and mouth coverings in children between age 6 and 17 is well beyond acceptable levels.
From the conclusions:
Mask Mandates
“There was no reduction in per-population daily mortality, hospital bed, ICU bed, or ventilator occupancy of Covid-19-positive patients attributable to the implementation of a mask-wearing mandate.”
Use of face masks did not impact Covid-19 incidence among 10–12-year-olds in Finland
“We compared the differences in trends of 14-day incidences between Helsinki and Turku among 10–12-year-olds, and for comparison, also among ages 7–9 and 30–49 by using joinpoint regression. According to our analysis, no additional effect seemed to be gained from this, based on comparisons between the cities and between the age groups of the unvaccinated children (10–12 years versus 7–9 years).”
Mask mandate and use efficacy in state-level Covid-19 containment
“Mask mandates and use are not associated with slower state-level Covid-19 spread during Covid-19 growth surges.”
1 comment:
I'm not surprised since the Bird Flu pandemic didn't catch on like they hoped.
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