Repeat after me: government-imposed mask mandates don’t work.
Did you say it out loud? If so, you’ve learned more in the past two years than LA County’s Health Director, Barbara Ferrer. A health director, by the way, whose total pay and benefits last year totaled $637,066 (with a healthy $469,289 base pay).
And she shows her appreciation to the taxpayers by imposing rules that DO NOT work. Specifically, she stated recently that she’d re-impose an indoor mask mandate if LA County reaches the CDC’s “high transmission” category because … “equity.” Data trends show that LA could reach this by the end of this month.
This is nuts. Not just because this absolutely won’t be enforced (remember when that mandate was in place and barely anyone – including Gov. Newsom and Mayor Garcetti – followed it at the Rams playoff game?), but also because it’s completely unwarranted by the data.
Let’s look at that data, shall we?
Last month, Alameda County was the only Bay Area county to bring back an indoor mask mandate. Even SF didn’t do it. And you’ll be shocked (shocked!) to know that … Alameda had almost ZERO difference from other Bay Area counties. (I’m including graphs from excellent reporting by SF Gate.)
Ok, so there’s that recent data. But what about last year when LA had a mask mandate and OC didn’t? You’ll be shocked (shocked again!) to find out that … LA had a higher peak of cases and the same peak of hospitalizations during that time.
This isn’t an argument over whether masks work (some do), but whether mandates that carry criminal penalties work (they don’t). Why in the world do residents in LA County still entertain the notion that they should listen to a person taking $637,066 of their hard-earned tax dollars in exchange for inane policy?
Push back LA! Write to your Supervisors, who can reverse every bad policy imposed by the Health Director. Especially those decisions based solely on one kind of science – the political kind.
