The Chicago health commissioner announced a new mask mandate on August 17th. She stated that the mandate would be removed once Chicago was under 400 daily cases for 1-2 weeks.
Once Chicago was under 400 daily cases for 2+ weeks, she announced a new goal to remove the mask mandate: 200 cases per day. She even (incorrectly) stated that she has kept the same numbers from the beginning.
My opinions on the matter:
I think the commissioner is a good person at heart (I spent quite some time listening to her as I found these clips). However, I believe she is extremely misguided in this effort. The law mandating face coverings for millions of people deserves discussion and criticism. I'm not sure if this is related to some pressure the commissioner is getting from the state, but I do believe strongly the goalposts were improperly changed for no valid reason.
Illinois does have a separate mask mandate, but that is no reason to keep Chicago's in effect. Chicago should immediately remove their mask mandate (now that we are under 400 cases for 3+ weeks) and pressure should start being applied to end the state mask mandate.
1. Stay home
2. Social distance
3. Wear a mask
4. Get vaccinated
5. Wear a mask
6. Get boosted
7. Wear a mask
8. ??
9. ???
10. ??????????
Seriously, what is next? If the masks are effective and the government doesn't plan to mandate them for our whole lives, why not remove the mandate now?
Some more detailed points:
1. If masks are effective, then it's great that they are helping to prevent cases now. But when the mask mandate is removed, why wouldn't cases spike at that time? Is the mask mandate worth it just to delay cases? What else are we waiting for?
2. The only real randomized controlled trial of cloth masks announced results recently (The Bangladesh Study). That trial gave some towns surgical masks, some towns cloth masks, and some towns no masks at all. The towns that had surgical masks saw a reduced covid rate compared to the towns with no masks. However, the towns with cloth masks saw no statistical difference in covid cases compared to the town with no masks. Most Chicagoans forced to wear masks are wearing the cloth ones. If the Bangladesh study results are accurate, these are not providing benefit. The same people that say (correctly) that Ivermectin doesn't have good trial evidence are pushing masks, which have basically the same evidence as Ivermectin (they work in a lab but haven't been shown to work in the real world).
3. Many of the masking rules are illogical. People are mandated to walk to their restaurant table with a mask on, only to remove that mask for hours while they eat/talk. This not only is just "covid theatre" - it diminishes trust in the health guidance. In one sentence, they say how the science supports that type of mask wearing and also supports the vaccines. People of course know that wearing the mask on the walk to the restaurant table is not useful, and think - hmmm, they're lying about the mask's usefulness, they're probably lying about the vaccine too. (There is actual evidence for the effectiveness of the vaccines, however).
4. Covid is here forever. We are all likely to get it during our lives, likely multiple times. When much of a population has immunity to the virus, case numbers aren't useful. A covid case that's just a cold is not much concern to anyone. Covid hospitalizations are the real concern.
5. Hospital capacity has been listed as a major concern, yet those numbers look great in Chicago right now. Not to mention that even in an average flu season, hospitals can get stressed, but these population measures have never been considered.
6. The case number goal given is ridiculously low. Within some short period of time, basically everyone will have immunity to the virus (from the vaccine or infection). The 200 cases per day number (with 2.7 million people in Chicago) corresponds to a breakthrough infection for every Chicago just once every 37 years (1/(200/2700000)*365). While we don't know how often people will get breakthroughs, it seems likely to be much more often than once every 37 years.
7. Individuals have different risk tolerances and comfort wearing masks. Some people ride motorcycles (risky!), some don't. Some people don't mind wearing masks even if they're optional while some really hate wearing them. Vaccines have been available for 6+ months. Individuals can choose to wear N95 style masks if they are worried about their personal risk. The time for these population-wide mandates has long past.
8. Mask mandates are put into effect by people who don't need to wear masks all day. To them, wearing a mask is a few hour a week annoyance. If kitchen cooks (hot kitchens, wearing masks 40 hours a week) were in charge of masking rules, I believe the mandates could be different.
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