Mask mandates are about politics and money
Mask mandates are about politics and money.
The latest evidence that these orders are unrelated to evidence-based medicine comes to us from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, inexplicably still run by social worker Barbara Ferrer.
On the Friday before New Year’s Eve, the Public Health Department quietly reimposed a mask mandate requiring that “all healthcare personnel (HCP) working in Licensed Healthcare Facilities that provide Inpatient Care, regardless of COVID-19 or influenza vaccination status, wear a Respiratory Mask while in contact with patients or working in Patient-Care Areas.”
The order also applies to visitors.
It was noticeable that this order dropped without a news conference or any public announcement from the department.
“An official press release was not issued,” observed Fox 11 news anchor Marla Tellez.
The loudest announcement of the order seemed to come from a self-described community organizer who is running a longshot campaign for Congress.
“We did it! Mask requirements are back in healthcare settings in LA County as of today Dec 29th! Thank you to everyone who has been tirelessly working on protecting our community for months, you made this happen!” wrote Joaquín Beltrán on his X account.
Beltrán posted an image of a handwritten letter he was delivering to Ferrer to thank her for her decision, noting below his signature that he was a congressional candidate and the founder of ActionCareEquity.org, or ACE. He took a victory lap on that website as well.
“After months of ACE members organizing protests, public comments at County Supervisor and Public Health Commission meetings, over 14,000 letters, and thousands of phone calls — on Dec 29th, The ACE Coalition successfully brought back mask requirements in healthcare settings!” the website trumpeted.
You might expect a decision mandating masks again to be backed by a little more science than that. Protests, comments, letters and phone calls are not typically cited in the footnotes of peer-reviewed articles in medical journals.
What exactly did the Public Health Department’s order cite in its footnotes?
There actually was a footnote on the need for “source control,” defined as “the use of masks to cover a person’s mouth and nose and to help reduce the spread of large respiratory droplets to others when the person talks, sneezes, or coughs.” The order stated that source control “can help reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, by someone who is infected but does not know it.”
But the only source cited as proof is a CDC blog post from back in September 2020. The title is “Respiratory Protection vs. Source Control – What’s the difference?”
Just the fact that there is a difference should tell you that masks don’t offer protection from airborne viruses, but then, the mask manufacturers tell you that themselves, right on the side of the box.
I’m not going to litigate the case over masks. I’ll leave that to attorney Julie Hamill and the Alliance of Los Angeles County Parents. They sued Ferrer and L.A. County over “arbitrary and capricious” mask mandates, imposed despite no evidence of efficacy and plenty of evidence of harm. The case is proceeding to appeal after a Catch-22 ruling in the lower court held that the mask requirement could not be challenged. The court ruled there was no choice except to consider the mandate “reasonable” because it was based on CDC “guidance,” and also that the CDC guidance could not be challenged because it was not binding on anybody.
These mandates have a distinct political tint. Newsweek reports that the mask requirements have so far been brought back at hospitals only in California, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
It’s a feature of Democrat-dominated jurisdictions that unions, including teachers’ unions and health care workers’ unions, are political power players. COVID-19 was milked for money in countless ways.
The ActionCareEquity.org website isn’t even hiding the financial motive. Under the banner of “Weekly Protests,” a masked activist is pictured in an online post standing in front of a building and holding a sign that reads, “Keep Pandemic Funding.” The post on X tagged the governor, both U.S. senators and a congressman.
If you’re looking for funding, that’s the list. And you want to rob people, wear a mask.
Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on Twitter @Susan_Shelley