Sherman R. Frederick
Marinscope
Three of California’s highest political leaders have been caught publicly breaking their own COVID-19 mask rules.
First came pictures of Gov. Gavin Newsom early-on in the pandemic dining maskless at a birthday party for a lobbyist. Then San Francisco Mayor London Breed was caught twice in the latter part of 2021 dancing and singing maskless in one of the city’s night clubs. She lashed out, calling critics the “fun police.”
And most recently came the football game at SoFi stadium in Los angeles. All fans were required to wear masks at all times during the game (except for eating and drinking). Footage of the game shows very few fans wore masks during the game.
And up in the celebrity boxes, three of the state’s most prominent politicians were caught taking maskless selfies with sports star Magic Johnson.
Gov. Gavin Newsom explained the violation as a “courtesy” to Johnson, who asked for the selfie. And L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters while he posed maskless it was OK because he held his breath for the selfie.
After the football game, reporters pressed health officials to explain why mask rules remain in effect if few – even the mayors and the governor – were not going to obey them.
L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said despite the mass refusal to wear masks at the game, transmission is too high to relax the mask mandate at this point.
The Super Bowl will be played in SoFI stadium in L.A. this weekend. After the widespread non-compliance at the Los Angeles Rams/San Francisco 49ers game, at least one official has called on the county to relax the mask rules.
County Supervisor Katheryn Barger wrote: “This past weekend, we witnessed more than 70,000 fans in attendance for the National Football League NFC Championship game at SoFi Stadium, with a vast majority not wearing masks.”
Barger said that L.A. Public Health officials have indicated “we have not observed any Covid-19 spikes resulting from prior games this season from games at that stadium.” She also maintained that she fully expects next week’s Super Bowl, also at SoFi, “will see even lower masking compliance.”
She added that not making the change would “again call into question why we have stricter County mandates in place that are neither followed nor enforced, causing more feelings of frustration for residents who have been subject to masking requirements more strictly enforced in other settings like schools, restaurants, and retail.”
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