Let’s face it: Masks still make sense
Gov. Gavin Newsom was right to follow the lead of San Francisco, Santa Clara County and other jurisdictions Monday in tightening COVID vaccine requirements for public employees. Now he should join them in encouraging Californians to wear masks indoors, one of several rules his administration hastily abandoned as part of a campaignstyle grand reopening of the state last month.
With vaccine uptake flagging and infections climbing, Newsom announced that nearly a quartermillion Californians who work for the state will have to show proof of vaccination or be tested for COVID at least weekly. Despite an array of public education and outreach programs as well as cash giveaways, nearly half of Californians have yet to be fully vaccinated, which puts the state behind 17 others.
Newsom’s sensible attempt to get tougher with his own workforce comes a month after San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s administration announced that all city employees must be immunized once a vaccine receives full Food and Drug Administration approval rather than the current emergency authorization, which could put such mandates on firmer legal ground. The governor’s policy also followed more recent moves by Santa Clara County and New York City to require government workers to get the shots.
The governor correctly noted that those choosing to forgo vaccination are putting “innocent people’s lives at risk,” and he should look for more opportunities to attach consequences to the decision. But with new cases and hospitalizations rising rapidly in the Bay Area and statewide, he needs to do more to stop the spread immediately.
The most obvious appropriate precaution is for the state and federal governments to urge masking where people congregate indoors and vaccinations aren’t verified. Masks have proven effective in preventing transmission at the cost of a minor inconvenience.
Newsom, who faces a recall election in less than two months, insisted during a press conference in Oakland Monday that mask mandates are “the wrong question” before anyone asked him. When a reporter did raise the question, he noted that local orders and advisories in the Bay Area and other
regions already affect a majority of Californians. The governor, who has taken his cues from local officials before, would be wise to do so again.