Face masks: It’s deja vu all over again

Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick

You’d think that after the hell we’ve been through in California during the COVID pandemic – crazy rules imposed, then debunked, then imposed and debunked again – the government powers would be just a wee bit more circumspect before slamming the hammer down on health mandates again.

Not if Sonoma County has anything to say about it. 

Here’s the new rule that just came down on high from our neighbors to the north.

“Given the rising risk of respiratory virus-related illnesses such as COVID and flu, Sonoma County’s Health Officer today issued an order requiring health care personnel to mask when in patient care areas. The health order will be in effect throughout the respiratory virus season, which runs from Nov. 1 through April 30.”

The order “applies to staff at health care facilities including hospitals, clinics, surgery centers, infusion centers, dialysis centers, skilled nursing facilities, portions of long-term care facilities where nursing care is provided, and other facilities where patient care is provided indoors.”

This is NOT an advisory. It is NOT a recommendation. It’s another freakin’ mandate based on what our public health masters think might happen sometime this fall. It is made despite the fact that the general population has almost completely complied with the government’s advice on vaccinations for COVID and the flu.

The order doesn’t mention the latest science that raises significant doubt as to the efficacy of face masks. It doesn’t explain why only the healthcare workers have to wear the masks and not the patients. 

It’s a sweeping order based on assumptions. Isn’t that what made the CDC’s performance during the pandemic so suspect? Public health folks closed schools based on the assumption children would be at a greater risk. 

They were not. 

We mandated masks, prompting the proliferation of homemade masks that proved useless. 

Two Thanksgivings ago, California mandated that Thanksgiving dinners be held outside and that use of the indoor plumbing be limited and monitored. 

And, who can forget the asinine edict that children coming home from school from out-of-state had to be quarantined in their bedrooms for days. What a joke. 

It feels like, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, deja vu all over again. Let’s keep the crazy to a minimum this time around. This is not a pandemic. We should be allowed to carry on with our daily lives like we have during any other cold and flu season.

JUST THE FACTS

When it comes to crime reporting, I’m a big fan of the catchphrase from the old Dragnet TV series: “Just the facts, ma’am.” 

With that in mind, let me take you to two events reported in Marin over the Sept. 15-16 weekend. I can’t be 100% sure as to the motivation, but it appears both were a misquided attempt at political correctness. 

The first came in a press release from San Rafael Police Department detailing the mayhem in the Canal District on Guatemalan Independence Day. The police press release took great pains to point out that the official celebration of the Guatemalan Independence Day at Northgate as “peaceful.” 

But the violence that occurred as day turned to night –  a public safety nightmare marked by shootings, a knifing and the closing streets in the Canal District – was something else. 

It wasn’t. 

It was all a celebration of Guatemalan Independence Day. One occurred officially during the day, and the other occurred unofficially at night. Both were celebrations of a foreign country’s independence day. Suggesting otherwise is weird, and an attempt to needlessly shade the truth. 

In another event the day before (Sept. 15), the Marin Sheriff’s Department reported on two kids shoplifting from a store in “southern Marin.” One of the kids reached for a loaded, unregistered gun on his person as he was being apprehended. 

The crime did in fact occur in “southern Marin.” But it didn’t occur in Sausalito, or Corte Madera or Strawberry, it occurred in Marin City. What’s the point of obfuscating that – to shelter Marin City from its high-crime reputation? 

If this had happened in Novato, the Sheriff’s Department would never – ever – report on its official crime log that it happened in “northern Marin.” 

Look, all I’m saying is that crime needs to be reported accurately. Report crime the way it happens and let the chips fall where they may. 

Just the facts, ma’am. It’s best for the community in the short term and the long term. 

WHY WORRY?

This random fact from the CalMatters folks: “In the November 2022 election, more than 11.1 million Californians voted, but 26.9 million were eligible. In the last presidential election, in 2020, 17.8 million voted, of 25.1 million eligible.”

With everyone now getting a ballot mailed to them, that leaves one helluva lot of live ballots floating around somewhere. Am I wrong to worry?

ONE MORE THING

– My favorite season is when the mosquitoes are dead. 

– A teen-ager at church asked if I’d ever seen a Playstation 2 “in real life.” Lord, please get me out of this intergenerational Bible Study.

Thanks for spending time in this little corner of Bay Area journalism. Until next time, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.

(“Properly Subversive” is a commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for Marinscope Community Newspapers, the “mother ship” of the Novato Advance, the Ross Valley Reporter, the San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Mr. Frederick leads Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)