ABOUT REVIVING MASK MANDATES

The current COVID-19 surge has put Sacramento County in a precarious position. The highly transmissible and evasive BA.5 subvariant is getting little resistance from a population that has largely abandoned basic precautions like mask-wearing that limited its spread. While deaths and hospitalizations are lower thanks to the availability of vaccines and treatments, we invite new risks by ignoring what we have learned after two-plus years and 1 million deaths.

Despite the general apathy about masks, the threat of future variants that may have even greater ability to evade vaccines should compel us to tamp down the spread of the virus before the fall. State leaders and the local officials who defer to them could enact sensible measures to reduce transmission without pursuing broad mandates that many people would likely oppose. Reviving mask requirements in certain environments, such as public transportation, large indoor gatherings, certain school settings and workplaces, could reduce transmission without restricting public life …

Now, 28 months after the first stayat-home orders, California leaders are reluctant to act because COVID19 fatigue and pandemic politics have made public health orders controversial despite the risk of sickness, hardship and long-term symptoms.

The most effective way to get past this difficult period would be to accept some inconveniences and take precautions in high-transmission settings, giving us time to combat future mutations.

The obvious prescription may be odious to some, but if Californians refuse to use the best weapons we have to reduce transmission, we will keep prolonging this pandemic and inviting the virus to adapt faster than we can.