Beverly Hills Will Refuse to Enforce Mandate Should LA County Reinstate Masking

Fox News: The Beverly Hills, California, City Council voted unanimously not to enforce a Los Angeles County mask mandate should one be adopted. “I feel it is our job to lead and I support the power of choice,” Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse said after the voter Monday evening, according to reporting from Fox 11. The comments come as the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has publicly weighed the possibility of adopting an indoor mask mandate in the county, which has seen a steady rise in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. The mandate was reportedly set to go into effect Friday, but Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told reporters cases in the country may be leveling off and “we are likely to want to take a pause on moving too quickly on universal indoor masking” (Fox News). 

Daily Wire: Julie Hamill, an attorney representing the Alliance of Los Angeles County Parents, recently told the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in a letter that she would file a lawsuit if the mask mandate is reinstated for L.A. school kids. Hamill is requesting that the supervisors take away some of Ferrer’s authority (Daily Wire). 

CBS: Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger Monday issued a public statement opposing bringing back an indoor mask mandate, days before the county is considering re-imposing one to curb the spread of COVID-19… In an open letter sent to her Fifth District constituents, Barger said she believes “masking mandates are polarizing and unenforceable,” and said she does not believe such a move would have any major impact. “I have not seen any empirical data that conclusively shows that masking mandates make a difference in decreasing or stopping COVID-19 transmission rates,” Barger wrote. “An analysis of Alameda County’s June 2022 masking mandate, in fact, concluded it had no significant impact in comparison to its surrounding counties that did not impose a masking mandate. Alameda County dropped this mandate after only three weeks.” She added that a mandate “will not make a meaningful improvement to the underlying systemic healthcare inequities that are the true drivers of inequitable rates of COVID-19 deaths and long-term, negative effects” (CBS).