Los Angeles Signals Return to Mask Mandates, Ignores Evidence That They Don't Work

This is not a story from 2020 or 2021.

In the year of our Lord 2022, Los Angeles has officially announced their intention to return the county to a universal indoor mask mandate.

The unelected director of LA Public Health, who is not a doctor, has declared that when Los Angeles County hits the arbitrary "high" level on the CDC's transmission zone map, she will automatically reintroduce forced masking:

Local news reported on Thursday that "If the county stays at the high category for two weeks straight, officials would bring back rules requiring the wearing of masks during most indoor public activities."

It's hard to believe that anyone at this point still thinks mask mandates work. Areas with mandates have seen cases break records while areas without mandates have often seen cases fall.

It's even more absurd in Los Angeles, which is one of the best and clearest examples of masks failing to slow the spread.

Back in December 2021, LA Public Health conducted spot check surveys of over 1,500 businesses and issued a press release highlighting the high masking compliance.

Hilariously, the release was titled "High Compliance with Masking Requirements Keeps L.A. County Residents Safe and Healthy," due to the observed 95%+ rate of customers and employees masking indoors.

Immediately afterwards, cases in Los Angeles shattered all previous records:

One of the main inaccurate arguments made in defense of masking is that mandates only work if people comply, and the US simply did not have enough compliance.

Well Los Angeles contradicts that nonsensical misdirection.

The official public health department specifically measured compliance at a significant number of businesses over the course of a week and overwhelmingly found people were complying with the rules.

It just didn't matter. Because masks don't work.

You'd think that after disproving their own mandates that the supposed "experts" who run LA public health would, at the very least, quietly acknowledge failure by never bringing them back.

But that requires intellectual honesty and evidence based thinking; neither of which are present in Los Angeles.

And so if COVID cases continue to rise in the same seasonal and variant driven pattern we've seen for two years, residents will be forced to engage in the performative theater of mask mandates.

But don't worry, the unelected, non-doctor Barbara Ferrer says useless mandates are about more than COVID, they're about "equity:"

Ferrer will never be asked to explain what mask mandates have to do with "equity," so instead she'll continue to spread nonsensical misinformation and gaslight LA County's 10 million residents.

And just when you think it can't get any worse, Ferrer refused to rule out the potential for future shutdowns and limits on public gatherings.

With incompetent leaders like this, it's no wonder legitimate scientists are quitting their jobs in droves.

OutKick founder Clay Travis said anyone who defends masks at this point in time is absolutely insane and does not care about the truth. Congratulations, L.A.