June 2, 2022
In this file photo, a masked pedestrian walks past a mural during a coronavirus epidemic in San Francisco.
Jeff Chiu / Associated Press
Last month, Gulf counties announced that they had chosen not to impose masks indoors amid the current rise in COVID-19 cases, citing the low number of hospitalizations and the fact that a highly vaccinated region is well protected against severe illness and death.
Alameda County shattered the charts on Thursday, re-applying for an indoor mask mandate “to limit the impact of increasing COVID-19 cases on hospitalizations”. The mandate, which takes effect June 3, applies to most indoor facilities, with the exception of K-12 schools and the city of Berkeley, which sets its own health protocols. The state lifted its mandate for school masks earlier this year.
There is no end date for the mandate of Alameda County.
Earlier this week, the New York Times published an article entitled “Why Masks Work, But Mandates Don’t,” which called into question the effectiveness of broad mandates at the community level.
“Evidence shows that broad mask mandates have not done much to reduce the number of COVID cases in the last two years,” wrote author David Leonard. “Today, mask rules can lead to even less than in the past, given the infectivity of current versions of the virus. And successful public health campaigns rarely involve a separation battle for a measure that is unlikely to make much of a difference.
Analysis of district data from last summer’s delta-induced wave – the last COVID-19 wave in California in which counties had different camouflage policies – suggests that mask mandates had little effect on the percentage of cases if vaccination levels in the county were similar.
Eric Ting is the political editor of SFGATE. He was born in East Bay with a master’s degree in journalism from Stanford University. Eric holds a bachelor’s degree from Pomona College, where he studied politics and economics. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com
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