Wednesday, March 02, 2022

Major Sacramento Newspaper Editorial Board Members Clutch Pearls About Ending Mask Mandates In Schools

It doesn't matter that the vast majority of the country has ended mask mandates.  It doesn't matter that most (all?) of California has ended mask mandates.  No, the major Sacramento newspaper editorial board thinks California's students should continue to breathe their exhaled breath for months to come:

Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s insistence that “the latest data and science” continue to guide his COVID policy, his administration’s abandonment of school mask requirements this week amounted to a bare-faced concession to strident voices and shortsighted politics. In the name of defusing the governor’s loudest critics and appeasing those insisting on convenience over caution, the decision will leave teachers and schools vulnerable to the vagaries of the virus and students susceptible to still more educational deprivation...

Two weeks after the state’s broader indoor mask mandate expired, Newsom nevertheless announced this week that he would drop the requirement for schools and child care centers as of March 12. The administration’s position is a departure from that of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which advises Americans to wear masks in schools and other indoor locations in places with high coronavirus transmission, including a majority of California counties.

Despite the vocal minority disrupting school board meetings across the state, the administration is also at odds with most Californians. According to a recent poll by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, nearly two-thirds of the state’s voters support requiring masks in schools, with even greater support among Black and Latino Californians, who have been disproportionately sickened and killed by the virus.

Even the governor appeared to be having an argument with his own policy. Although the administration will no longer require masks in classrooms, it continues to “strongly recommend” them — a regrettable attempt to have it both ways and let others sort out the mess.

I can think of 3 times the governor has been known to flout his own mask mandates, the first being the French Laundry episode.  He clearly doesn't fear the 'rona, and neither do I, and I resent having to wear a face diaper just so that he can demonstrate his authority and others can demonstrate their ideological purity.

Too many Americans have been misled into mistaking minor public health precautions for an affront to their liberty and misconstruing selfishness as a fight for freedom. Our leaders should resist the urge to pander to such impulses and summon the courage to stand up for the well-being of the public and particularly the most vulnerable among us.

When freedom is a problem, that is a problem.  There are two types of people in the world:  those who want to tell others what to do, and those of us who just want to be left alone to live our lives.  We clearly see what type of people sit on this particular editorial board.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having had several mask-induced asthma attacks, I resent people calling them "minor public health precautions."

Ellen K said...

After two years of having COVID "information" shoved in people's faces, to the point that some quit their jobs, moved their families and acquired lifestyles utterly at odds with normal human societal behaviors, is it any wonder that those most susceptible to the litanies of the Left would actually push back and embrace mask mandates? I mean, these are the same folks celebrating the mutilation and chemical castration of very young children for the sake of massaging their virtue crediting to a new level. In California, where scant news outside of the Left gets through, they have no alternatives. They have been offered none until elections forced Democrats to make moves to normalize our nation for the sake of a few votes. Am I surprised? No. Am I sad for the families and children held captive by mobs inflicting far more damage on future generations than any riot or protest? Yes. This will resonate. And while some of these children will fall in line, many will push back harder. The Left just created a big problem.

Auntie Ann said...

Who exactly are the "strident voices" here?

The ones who shrug and say that everyone else has taken their masks off with no problems, or

The one's who scream NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! MASKS FOREVER AND A DAY!!!!! I DON'T CARE THAT EVIL FLORIDIANS HAVE UNMASKED THEIR KIDS FOR OVER A YEAR!!! I'M STICKING MY FINGERS IN MY EARS AND HUMMING TO BLOCK OUT ALL THE SAD ANTI-SCIENCE! ANTI-MASKERS! AND I'M GOING TO HOLD MY BREATH UNTIL I TURN BLUE IF WE AREN'T ALL MASKED IN PERPETUITY! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Ellen K said...

@Anonymous: I have run into the same thing with my asthma. The worst incident where I had to use my rescue inhaler twice in a three hour period was on a flight back from Vegas.