7/15/22
So it appears the geniuses in charge of Los Angeles County are about to re-institute a mask mandate on the ten million poor souls who live there. The reason? Who knows the real reason (stupidity, cruelty, just because they can), but the proffered reason is CASES ARE GOING UP!!
A couple things:
The “Public Health Director” of LA County, one Barbara Ferrer (this one makes Rochelle Walensky look smart) said (my bold) “I do recognize that when we return to universal indoor masking to reduce high spread, for many, this will feel like a step backwards...But forcing everyone to wear masks inside makes a lot of sense because it helps us to reduce risk.”
First notice the “when” not “if”. They’ve already decided the issue but they’re pretending they might actually have the brain power to be rational. NOT. And OF COURSE it will “feel like” a step backwards…because it is. And if the phrase “forcing everyone” doesn’t wake you up in a cold sweat, you are definitely part of the problem. We’ll get to “makes a lot of sense” in a bit.
As an aside, as I have pointed out before, this is Barbara Ferrer, the “Public Health Director” of LA County.
Does this look like someone from whom you would take “health” advice? Honestly, does this woman look like she knows the first thing about actually being “healthy”? Well of course she wouldn’t because her education is in community studies (whatever that is), public health, education, and social welfare. She’s a bureaucrat. She doesn’t understand the first thing about actually being a healthy human being. To quote Dr. Vinay Prasad (someone way smarter, more educated, and more knowledgeable than any of us and certainly more than this character – and a self-professed lefty by the way) “Allow me to explain where the train went off the rails…The mandate won't apply to gyms or yoga studios. They say they won't ticket or punish you, if you don't comply. But all of this is fine for adults. Kids will return to school and there will be no mercy for them. They will be obliged to mask up. Another year of stupidity…Los Angeles public health officials are morons. They have consistently made bad decisions, and this is no exception.”
Second, let’s take a look at the actual data on which this hysterical decision is being made. According to the local Los Angeles NBC affiliate, right now “According to state figures, there were 1,021 COVID-positive patients in county hospitals as of Friday, up from 989 on Thursday. The number of those patients being treated in intensive care was 99, down from 103 a day earlier.” There are some 10,000,000 residents in LA County so that gives you a population hospitalization rate of 0.01% or one one-hundredth of one percent. As to deaths, the daily average sits at about 14. That’s a risk of dying of COVID in Los Angeles County of about 0.0001% or one ten-thousandth of one percent.
But wait, there’s more. Our friend Barbara Ferrer tells us “…roughly 40% of patients with the virus were admitted for COVID illness, while 60% were admitted for other reasons…” That means your risk of being hospitalized because of COVID in LA County is actually about 0.004% or four one-thousandths of one percent. Scary stuff. I’m pretty sure your risk of ending up in the hospital from a Sharknado attack is greater than that from COVID.
By the way, Los Angeles County has a “fully vaccinated rate of about 72%. I don’t understand where all the “cases” are coming from. Why EXACTLY am I getting vaccinated? Oh yeah, now it's so I don’t get a “serious” case, that’s right. May I please see that data? Pretty please.
And one more time (I can't believe I still have to keep debunking this mask nonsense), as to Ferrer’s assertion that "forcing people" to wear masks “makes a lot of sense”, I will once again quote Dr. Prasad:
“Masks. Whenever a smart person tells me that masks have good evidence, I know they didn't actually read any studies. Either that, or perhaps they are not smart. The evidence base is clear, as we detailed in our working paper. The evidence is very poor. Nonexistent in kids…Continuing a policy with no evidence year after year is madness. But it is even worse here. Because the goal changed…Pre adult vaccines, the goal was to shield older people from Covid till they could get vaxd. To lower risk of death. Now 1 year after vaccination, when it is obvious breakthrough is inevitable, slowing transmission doesn't make sense. It serves no purpose…But mandates don't even slow transmission. It's like slaughtering a goat. A stupid ritual. Imposing it on kids is particularly pointless.”
If you want to wear a mask that’s your business. You look silly, but you do you. But to IMPOSE this nonsense on society (and ESPECIALLY ON KIDS) is inexplicably stupid. That is, the level of stupidity in the thinking that this is a good idea or has any virtue at all is so high that it is literally beyond any rational person’s thought process.
To return to Dr. Paul Offit, who while being perhaps the most pro-vax guy on the planet at least has the integrity and honesty to tell the truth, whom I quoted in “THE PANIC PORN BEGINS AGAIN” from 7/13/22, “At some level, we’re going to have to get used to mild illness and moderate illness as part of this virus — which is going to be with us for the rest of my life, the rest of my children’s lives, the rest of their children’s lives.”
We cannot allow our government overlords or medical “experts” to impose their nonsensical wills on us again. Ever.