Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva is pushing back against a new requirement to wear masks in indoor public spaces regardless of vaccination status that is set to take effect Saturday night.
The country’s most populous county is instituting the new mask mandate amid a surge in cases but Villanueva says the move contradicts guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Forcing the vaccinated and those who already contracted Covid-19 to wear masks indoors is not backed by science,” Villanueva wrote in a statement posted on his department’s website.
Although Villanueva recognizes that the county’s Department of Public Health “has authority” to issue the order, “the underfunded/defunded Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will not expend our limited resources and instead ask for voluntary compliance.”
The mandate comes after weeks of public health officials urging people to wear masks indoors s the highly contagious Delta variant is making COVID-19 cases soar across the state. But it’s unclear whether people will be willing to put on masks again, particularly with Villanueva making it clear there will be little, if any enforcement.
The L.A. County Department of Public Health could issue citations to businesses that don’t comply but a spokeswoman said “education and information sharing” would be the main strategy. “Our community will not be able to enforce our way out of this pandemic,” the spokeswoman, Natalie Jimenez, said.
No mask for me they fooled me once.