As COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations rise, California and a handful of other states have been considering reinstituting mask mandates. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was supportive of the recent decision Los Angeles made to reinstitute mask mandates regardless of vaccination status. They said they would keep masking requirements in place until they see improvements in community transmission and get more people vaccinated.
First, they told people to get the vaccine to protect themselves and stop the spread. Now, they are saying you need to wear a mask even if you’re vaccinated because it will “protect you more.” The Dems really are running out of excuses.
Gov. Newsom shared on a recent MSNBC’s “Ayman Mohyeldin Reports” that he supports what is happening not only in L.A County and Pasadena, but throughout northern California and the Bay Area as well. He said their focus right now is on the 25% of people who haven’t been vaccinated yet.
“We can end this disease and we can move beyond mask-wearing, we can move beyond the stress and the rancor around in-person instruction for our kids, our concern around lockdowns and social distancing once and for all by getting people vaccinated that are eligible to be vaccinated, and that’s our primary focus. And we continue to encourage those local decisions for those nonpharmaceutical interventions like face coverings,” Newsom said.
California officials announced that students and teachers would be required to wear masks when returning to the classroom this year, regardless of vaccination status. They said the masks will make it so that students are able to walk into school without worrying about whether they feel “different or singled out” for being vaccinated or unvaccinated. They emphasized that the mask mandates would “treat all kids the same” in a calm and supportive school environment.
Many organizations and parents groups have fought back against the mandates. Two groups, Let Them Breathe & Reopen California Schools, filed a lawsuit saying that the mask mandates in the classroom are more detrimental to students than helpful. Reopen California Schools Founder Jonathan Zachreson said their kids have suffered for over a year already and that it’s time to give them some of the normalcy they deserve. The groups are asking for the state of California to halt mask mandates, stop quarantining healthy kids, and put an end to routine asymptomatic testing.
The state’s health department has chosen to ignore the overwhelming evidence that children are at very low risk of being infected or transmitting it to others. It seems that even Gov. Newsom is making a scene to ignore the science. He recently removed his children from a summer camp after photos surfaced of his son attending the camp indoors maskless.
Newsom’s communications director, Erin Mellon, shared that the Newsoms were “concerned” to see unvaccinated children unmasked indoors at the camp and said their children will be no longer attending.
Reopen California Schools Twitter page pointed out the hypocrisy of where Newsom chose to send his kids to school. They wrote that the photos were removed from the summer camp’s Instagram account once Newsom’s son was identified, but that there is plenty of screenshots and video out there. The group also emphasizes that the Instagram post occurs as Newsom pushes for increased vaccine rates if we ever want to be rid of masks.
“This is in clear violation of his own mask mandates. Why can his kid be maskless, but not ours?” Reopen California Schools tweeted.
Some users argued that Newsom’s kid should be wearing a mask based on everything the governor has said. If actions speak louder than words, Newsom’s maskless kid running around at a summer camp just proves that even the state’s own governor doesn’t believe masks work. But it’s never been about the virus, it’s always been about control.
