Barbara Ferrer, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, is once again threatening to reimpose a broad mask wearing mandate on people in the county, purportedly to counter coronavirus.
Of course, masks have never been shown to provide net protection against coronavirus and even most people who succumbed to the coronavirus fearmongering early on have happily turned their backs on masks, “social distancing,” isolation at home, and the rest of the pseudoscientific protocols that were thrust upon them before. Nonetheless, some bureaucrats can’t help but keep grasping to reclaim the power that has slipped through their fingers.
Back in July, Ferrer threatened that a broad mask mandate would likely soon automatically swing back in force in the county because of increases in coronavirus “community transmission” numbers in the county — numbers the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had singled out as important. She is back now with a similar threat. As reported by ABC News out of Los Angeles, on Thursday “Ferrer said the mandate would be issued if two hospital metrics reach [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)] thresholds — a daily average admission rate of more than 10 per 100,000 residents and a greater than 10% rate of staffed inpatient beds being occupied by COVID patients.”
Maybe people in Los Angeles County will luck out and not be subjected to the reimposition of the broad mask mandate because what ended up happening over the summer happens again: In July, the coronavirus numbers ultimately just missed tripping a CDC-inspired threshold, denying Ferrer her anticipated mandate. But, it is a sad situation that people must continue to live under the shadow of threats to reimpose the buffoonish and authoritarian mandate.
Some tyrants will not give up on the new power they grabbed up in coronavirus crackdowns until they are forced to do so.
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity is a project of Dr. Paul’s Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (F.R.E.E.), founded in the 1970s as an educational organization. The Institute continues and expands Dr. Paul’s lifetime of public advocacy for a peaceful foreign policy and the protection of civil liberties at home. Visit http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org