In LA, The Masks Come Off Over Masking

California, or at least part of it, has been seeing a resurgence of bien pensant opinion that we should be wearing masks, even though Drs Birx and Fauci have been publicly backing off their own previous endorsement of COVID measures. Contra Costa County, which includes both Oakland and Berkeley as well as very tony suburbs, tried to reimpose a mandatory indoor mask rule in June but dropped it after a few weeks. Los Angeles County has been threatening the same for two months now, but pressure against it has been building.

Lame duck LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who represents the uber-wealthy West Side and Hollywood Hills, had this to say about the growing opposition to a renewed mask mandate:

"I'm particularly struck by the blowback from a number, though not a really significant number of sort of, 'snowflake weepies' about how oppressive it is to wear a mask."

Kuehl has previously been a supporter of COVID restrictions that have been among the strictest in the US. In December 2020, demonstrators surrounded her home in Santa Monica when she voted to ban outdoor dining at restaurants but promptly went out the same evening to dine at an outdoor restaurant:

LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who represents Santa Monica, ate at a local restaurant just hours after voting to ban outdoor dining and saying doing so is “probably more dangerous in terms of contagion than any other kind of business.”

On Tuesday, November, 24 Kuehl along with two other Supervisors voted to suspend outdoor dining for three weeks in Los Angeles County due to rising COVID-19 cases. The ban passed with a 3-2 vote.

“Outdoor dining is probably more dangerous in terms of contagion than any other kind of business,” Kuehl, a Santa Monica resident, said at the Tuesday meeting. “The servers are not protected from us, and they’re not protected from their other tables that they’re serving at that particular time, plus all the hours in which they’re working.”

That evening, however, Kuehl ate outside at Santa Monica restaurant Il Forno, as confirmed by Barbara Osborn, Director of Communications for the Supervisor.

If it's as dangerous as she claimed, why on earth did she risk her health and her life to do it one last time? In any case, she was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2014 and had been subject to a three-term limit, which would hsve ended in 2026. It is not entirely clear why she announced last month that she would not run for reelection in 2022, although she is currently 81, but her positions on COVID, as well as her public conflicts with County Sheriff Villanueva on homeless encampments, may also have convinced her that reelection might not be a sure thing. Oddly, there has been no serious coverage of her decision.

Previous restrictions have not played well in the county, and although there's an existing mask mandate on transit, neither Amtrak nor the Metrolink commuter rail agency has enforced it since the spring. In addition,

The local governments in several cities in Los Angeles County, including Beverly Hills, Manhattan Beach and Long Beach, have already said that they would defy a county mandate on masks, reports NBC Los Angeles.

Additionally, neighboring Orange County's Healthcare Agency said in a statement that the would not be implementing a mask mandate.

My guess is that a substantial part of the population anywhere in the US is simply done with COVID and recognizes that masks are, and have been throughout, useless in controlling the pandemic. Nevertheless, even without a mandate, my estimate is that roughly half of those who attend Sunday mass wear them, and a remarkable number still wear them on the street. If LA County or any other jurisdiction is serious about limiting transmission, they should take Dr Fauci's advice and require everyone to wear N95 masks, properly fitted.

And of course, if they're in a restaurant, they should remove the N95 only briefly when they take a bite and quickly replace it while they chew. But as Supervisor Kuehl has already pointed out, even this is highly dangerous.

The fact is that nobody, starting with Supervisor Kuehl, actually takes any of this seriously. On one hand, it's kabuki. On the other, it's a sign of assent. As with Darth Vader, it shows you take orders. The wealthiest seem to want things back like they were in 2020.