Pirate's Cove

Masks worked so well last time, and are totally going to work again this time, right?

Here is Wake County’s new COVID mask mandate, and the five towns opting out

Wake County late Wednesday afternoon released details of a new mask mandate to help fight COVID-19.

The order requires people over the age of 5 to wear a mask in public and commercial spaces including businesses regardless of their vaccination status. It takes effect at 7 a.m. Friday.

The Wake County order is effective until Nov. 1 unless it is rescinded sooner. (snip)

Garner, Knightdale, Morrisville, Rolesville and Zebulon all joined Wake County in its mask mandate. Raleigh and Cary have both issued their own mask orders. Combined, that makes up about 83% of the county’s population.

That means masks will be required everywhere in Wake County except the municipal limits of Apex, Fuquay-Varina, Holly Springs, Wake Forest and Wendell. However, businesses can still require masks and some municipal buildings may require masks in those jurisdictions.

There are zero enforcement mechanisms. Two out of three places in Knightdale I went to over the past few days aren’t requiring people to wear masks, including a big retailer. Some places in Raleigh have signs up asking people to wear masks, but, not enforcing. Many do not have anything posted. A lot of people just don’t care. They’re over it. And, really, most of Wake County that isn’t a municipality has few businesses or private entities: it’s residential. And the county cannot dictate what happens in the incorporated areas, except for, surprise, schools.

“This new phase of the pandemic has brought some old challenges roaring back, but our experience in 2020 taught us an important lesson: Masks work,” Weinbrecht said.

“Because Cary citizens decided to protect each other by masking up last year, we were able to keep our hospitals from being overwhelmed,” he continued. “With the delta variant spreading quickly, we need that community spirit now more than ever.”

Decided? No. They were forced. Sure, there were some who did this voluntarily, and continued to do it. And they’re the ones you see wearing masks down over their noses and even mouths. Getting too close to people. Touching other people. Wearing them while solo in their cars. Playing Mask Theater.

Both Cary and Raleigh’s orders require people to wear masks in private or public settings when not with members of the same households. Wake County’s order doesn’t apply to private homes or vehicles.

How many people do you think are wearing masks in their own homes when people stop by? 0.5%? Anyone else think that reinforcing the original rules – wash your hands, don’t touch your face, don’t touch other people, social distance – would work better than thin pieces of cloth no designed to stop viruses? Especially when masks make people feel like they can get close to other people.

Meanwhile

As U.S. promotes booster shots against Covid, moral questions arise over vaccine equity

The announcement Wednesday by top U.S. health officials that booster shots against Covid-19 will be offered to all Americans beginning next month has spurred renewed criticism about existing vaccine inequities and fears that the world’s poorer nations will remain unprepared for new and potentially deadlier variants of the coronavirus.

As the Biden administration formally released its plan, officials and scientists with the World Health Organization and other international public health experts forcefully pushed back at it as “immoral” and “unconscionable.”

“We’re planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while we’re leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket,” Dr. Michael Ryan, the emergencies chief at WHO, told reporters.

This again. America first. Protect our own people first.

Washington’s COVID vaccine mandates ordered by Gov. Jay Inslee are among the strictest in the nation

Even before Gov. Jay Inslee expanded his COVID-19 vaccination order to K-12 and higher education employees on Wednesday, Washington’s vaccine mandate ranked among the most sweeping and strict in the nation.

Most governors who have imposed such mandates have built in wiggle room, allowing public employees and health care workers to undergo regular coronavirus tests if they choose not to get vaccinated.

Inslee’s orders offer no such slack. Employees at state agencies, schools and universities must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or face termination. Inoculations also will be a condition of employment for hundreds of thousands of people working in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

You vill comply, Comrade. How many will simply quit and take their services elsewhere? Might Washington State head coach Nick Rolovich decide to let the state fire him, meaning he would get a lot of money for not coaching? Like $3 million a year.