Mask mandates make a return - along with controversy
Dan Diamond
Mon, July 19, 2021, 8:43 PM·8 min read

The US surgeon general on July 18 defended a renewed mask mandate in Los Angeles, saying other areas may have to follow and adding that he is "deeply concerned" about the Covid-19 outlook in the fall. LA County reported another 1,233 Covid-19 cases, the 11th consecutive day the number has topped 1,000.

Two months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said vaccinated individuals didn't need to wear masks in most settings, a growing number of experts are warning it's time to put them back on.

First, there was Los Angeles County, where the rising menace posed by the delta variant of the coronavirus prompted health officials to reimpose a mask mandate. Then, Bay Area health officers on Friday recommended that residents of seven counties and the city of Berkeley, Calif., resume wearing masks indoors. Mask mandates are being discussed, too, in coronavirus hot spots such as Arkansas and Missouri, where cases have sharply increased in recent weeks and many residents remain unvaccinated.

The US surgeon general on July 18 defended a renewed mask mandate in Los Angeles, saying other areas may have to follow and adding that he is "deeply concerned" about the Covid-19 outlook in the fall. LA County reported another 1,233 Covid-19 cases, the 11th consecutive day the number has topped 1,000.

Two months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said vaccinated individuals didn't need to wear masks in most settings, a growing number of experts are warning it's time to put them back on.

First, there was Los Angeles County, where the rising menace posed by the delta variant of the coronavirus prompted health officials to reimpose a mask mandate. Then, Bay Area health officers on Friday recommended that residents of seven counties and the city of Berkeley, Calif., resume wearing masks indoors. Mask mandates are being discussed, too, in coronavirus hot spots such as Arkansas and Missouri, where cases have sharply increased in recent weeks and many residents remain unvaccinated.

"Universal masking indoors is a way of taking care of each other while we get more people vaccinated," said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which last week moved to reinstate an indoor mask mandate. "It really doesn't disrupt any business practices. It allows us to remain fully open - while we acknowledge that the delta variant [is] spreading like wildfire here."

And the nation's current and former surgeon generals warned the nation should brace for a broader return to mask-wearing.

"We need to prepare the public for what could be, again, a return to some of these mitigation measures," former surgeon general Jerome Adams told Indianapolis TV station WISH-TV on Sunday, highlighting a resurgence of the virus across the Midwest. Adams, an appointee of former president Donald Trump, called on the CDC to "hit the reset button" and once again recommend widespread mask-wearing as coronavirus cases spike.

"We need to be reopening our state, not reimposing unnecessary restrictions," Kevin Faulconer, the Republican former San Diego mayor now running for California governor, wrote on Twitter last week. The Los Angeles County sheriff last week said he would refuse to enforce the local masking mandate, and Republicans nationally took aim at existing protections.

"In a free county people will evaluate their personal risk factors and are smart enough to ultimately make medical decisions like wearing a mask themselves," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a statement last week, introducing legislation that would ban mask mandates on planes and public transportation.

The daily average of confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases has risen in the past month, from 11,855 on June 19 to more than 34,000 on Monday, according to The Washington Post's seven-day average of coronavirus cases. Experts on coronavirus transmission say masks remain a crucial tool to protect tens of millions of unvaccinated Americans - and even vaccinated people, with growing evidence of breakthrough infections in some fully immunized adults, although health officials have said most people who have died or been hospitalized with covid-19 in recent weeks were unvaccinated.

--------Skipping Forward--------

Meanwhile, society continues to steadily reopen, as businesses and entertainment venues increasingly welcome back customers. The Transportation Security Administration said it tracked 2.23 million travelers through its checkpoints Sunday, the highest number of travelers since the onset of the pandemic last year, and movie theater chains have reported millions of patrons this month after a year when cinemas often sat empty.

Link Here
EDIT THRASH - Fixed Link

For reference: St Louis is going back to mandatory masks pretty much everywhere starting Monday (7/26/21) according to this report , additionally stating that getting the last half of the population (that are eligible for vaccination) vaccinated (should) all but eliminate Covid ...
 ...

WTF, Florida???

Florida school district reverses mask mandate after DeSantis threatens to cut funding

Florida school district reverses mask mandate after DeSantis threatens to cut funding
Yacob Reyes
August 3, 2021, 12:29 pm

Florida's second-largest school district on Monday said it will no longer impose a mask mandate after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) threatened to withhold funding from districts that require face coverings.

Driving the news: Broward County Public Schools announced last week that it would require mask use after the CDC issued new guidance recommending universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools this incoming school year, regardless of vaccination status.

DeSantis on Friday issued an executive order barring local school districts from requiring students to wear masks when they return to the classroom next month.

The order also said that "if the State Board of Education determines that a district school board is unwilling or unable to comply with the law, the State Board shall have the authority to, among other things, withhold the transfer of state funds, discretionary grant funds ... and declare the school district ineligible for competitive grants."

The order was in response to "several Florida school boards considering or implementing mask mandates in their schools after the Biden Administration issued unscientific and inconsistent recommendations that school-aged children wear masks," the governor's office said.

Florida's second-largest school district on Monday said it will no longer impose a mask mandate after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) threatened to withhold funding from districts that require face coverings.

Driving the news: Broward County Public Schools announced last week that it would require mask use after the CDC issued new guidance recommending universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools this incoming school year, regardless of vaccination status.

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DeSantis on Friday issued an executive order barring local school districts from requiring students to wear masks when they return to the classroom next month.

The order also said that "if the State Board of Education determines that a district school board is unwilling or unable to comply with the law, the State Board shall have the authority to, among other things, withhold the transfer of state funds, discretionary grant funds ... and declare the school district ineligible for competitive grants."

The order was in response to "several Florida school boards considering or implementing mask mandates in their schools after the Biden Administration issued unscientific and inconsistent recommendations that school-aged children wear masks," the governor's office said.

What they're saying:
"Broward County Public Schools intends to comply with the governor's latest executive order," the district said in a statement Monday.

"Safety remains our highest priority. The district will advocate for all eligible students and staff to receive vaccines and strongly encourage masks to be worn by everyone in schools," it continued.

"The district will also work to adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, including frequent cleaning and disinfecting of our schools, physical distancing, hand washing, and staying home when sick."

The big picture: Florida is experiencing a surge of new COVID cases, largely driven by the Delta variant.

More than 110,400 cases were reported over the seven-day period ending July 29, up from just over 73,000 the week before.

W-T-F??!??!?

I assume Florida's government is just trying to kill all of their citizens at this point.

Or at least the elderly ones ....
*shrug*

WTF IS THIS!?!?!?!!:

Florida gives school districts 48 hours to reverse mask mandates or lose funding

Two Florida school districts that defied state rules and imposed mask mandates for students have been given 48 hours to reverse course or lose state funding equal to the salaries of their school board members.

In an order sent Friday to the districts in Alachua and Broward counties -- the first of five districts in the state to impose mask requirements this month -- the State Board of Education said that if they do not reverse their mandates in two days, the districts will have to provide Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran the current salaries of each school board member.

The Florida Department of Education said it then will start gradually withholding state funds -- equal to 1/12 of the salaries of the board members, monthly -- "until each district demonstrates compliance," according to a statement.

The order prohibits the districts from letting the reduction of funds "impact student services or teacher pay" and requires them to report to the state any instance in which they enforce their "unlawful" mask mandate.

The state board kept open the possibility of additional sanctions.

Friday's crackdown came after weeks of threats from the education department and Gov. Ron DeSantis' office, including an emergency meeting of the state board Tuesday in which the chair, Tom Grady, suggested that sanctions against Alachua and Broward could include removing school officials from their elected posts.

Leaders in both school districts told ABC News Friday that they will not reverse their mask mandates and will take legal action against the state.

"It's not legal what the governor is doing. We think he has overstepped his purview," said Dr. Rosalind Osgood, chair of the Broward County School Board.

"Based on the dramatic spike in cases and quarantines in our schools and community, we believe universal masking is absolutely critical to keeping schools open, protecting the health of our students and staff, and limiting the current strain on our local health care system," Dr. Carlee Simon, superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, said in a statement.

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said on Friday he supported both districts, adding in a statement that President Joe Biden and his administration "stand with them and with all educators who put student and staff health and education first."

Neither district would definitively say whether they will take up the Biden administration's recent offer to let them use federal money to cover the withheld funds. Osgood said accepting the money would amount to "taking money away from education," emphasizing that "it's about the kids." Simon, meanwhile, noted in her statement that the Alachua County Commission has offered to make up the loss of funding.

The school districts in Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, and Palm Beach counties also voted this week to impose mask mandates for students. Brett Tubbs, a spokesperson for the state education department, told ABC News that "it has not been decided yet" whether the state will investigate those districts, though he said, "If we've already done it in the past, we will probably go that route again."

Link
EDIT - THRASH: Added Link

And this is the very next article ....

Over 10,000 students in Florida school district isolated or quarantined a week into school year
The district has reported more than 1,800 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Just a week into the school year, over 10,000 students and staff in the Hillsborough County Public Schools district in Florida have been isolated or quarantined as districts across the state grapple with COVID-19.

Hillsborough is the seventh-largest school district in the U.S., with more than 213,000 students. As of Wednesday, 10,384 students and 338 staffers are isolated or under quarantine, the district told ABC News.

In total, there were 1,805 COVID-19 cases among students and staff, according to the Tampa-area district's COVID-19 dashboard.

The district is requiring masks for students, but parents can opt their children out. To date, at least 28,000 parents have opted out, district officials told ABC News.

The district held an emergency school board meeting Wednesday to discuss how to respond to the crisis.

In the heated gathering people shared points both for and against a mask mandate.

One mother of a student yelled, "Have any children died?" as a result of the virus. Some people in the audience shouted back that children have. Parents against masks argued that face coverings prevent kids from smiling at each other and communicate with their peers and teachers.

A wife of a teacher said during the meeting that her husband is immunosuppressed and suggested the district enforce masks just as they enforce girls adhere to a dress code that bans spaghetti straps. One high school student told the anti-maskers, "This tiny piece of cloth is not taking away your freedom. ... Grow up."

After a marathon meeting that ran nearly three hours longer than intended, Hillsborough County voted to institute a mask mandate for at least 30 days, but parents will be able to opt their kids out with a note from a medical provider.

District officials said they're providing personal protective equipment and sanitation stations for each classroom, and have installed MERV-13 air filters at each school.

"As we work to create the safest environment for our students and staff, we also must abide by the governor's executive order, as well as emergency rules from the Department of Health and state Board of Education. This requires our district to preserve a parent's right to choose to wear a face covering in school," a spokesperson for the district told ABC News. "The Governor has been clear that if school districts do not abide by this order, they could face financial consequences."

Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an emergency order giving parents the final say over masks for kids in school. At a press conference last month, he said Florida students shouldn't be "muzzled," adding, "We need them to be able to breathe."

Elizabeth Devolder pulled her two children, who are in fifth and second grade, out of school to voluntarily quarantine them due to the "terrifying" rising number of virus cases.

"Although they were not immediately exposed, and they're not required to quarantine, I felt like why do we have to wait for our kids to get sick before we take action?" she told Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS.

The district is offering face-to-face instruction as well as virtual classes for the 2021-22 academic year.

The Bay Area of Florida has seen an uptick in virus cases. In Pinellas County, 521 cases among students and staff have been reported this school year, while in Sarasota there have bee 227 reported and in Manatee that figure stands at 480, according to those districts' respective dashboards.

In a similar meeting to the one in Hillsborough County, Miami-Dade County's school board voted Wednesday to also mandate masks with the ability to opt out with a medical note.

Mounting COVID-19 cases in schools are a rising concern as communities head back to in-person learning, especially as children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for vaccines.

Florida currently has the country's highest COVID-19 case rate. The state reported 151,415 new cases from Aug. 6 to Aug. 12 and 286 deaths, with a new-case positivity rate of 19.3%, according to its latest weekly COVID-19 report. And cases among children are up, with over 31,700 new cases reported last week among those 19 years old or younger.

Link

Florida is a disaster. Sell your property!

I'm hoping for sea level rise to be so rapid that there are no refugees.

At this rate, once he kills off the old and takes their land, and sells it to people who will jack the rents higher than Cali ...
... and kills off the kids so that there's no one to perpetuate the Florida species,
I'm guessing it'll be a desolate state once again ....