In the days before Covid-19. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office.
By Dan Katzive
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul announced Sunday afternoon that the statewide school mask mandate would be lifted for all ages effective this coming Wednesday, March 2. Individual counties and school districts can still opt to maintain masking requirements.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams followed the governor’s announcement with a statement of his own indicating the mask requirement in New York City schools would likely be lifted Monday, March 7.
The governor’s statement noted the sharp decline in New York State cases, including among children, and high vaccination rates in justifying the shift. She also stressed continued testing, noting that 4.8 million tests were sent to school districts for children to bring home ahead of winter break and that an additional 4.8 million would be sent home this week as children return.
The mayor’s statement indicated the city would lift its public school mandate on Monday, March 7, barring “unforeseen spikes,” with a final announcement to come Friday, March 4.
The Mayor also indicated that the city’s “Key2NYC” rules, which require proof of vaccination to access indoor dining, gyms and entertainment venues, would also be rolled back at the same time, again contingent on case numbers remaining low this week.
The governor’s order leaves masking requirements in place for healthcare and adult care facilities, nursing homes, correctional facilities, shelters, and transportation facilities, and on buses and trains.
This is a mistake that will come back to haunt with the next spike. Until <5 year olds can be vaccinated, allowing children to go without masks is too dangerous. What about our children in our schools who are immunocompromised.
Don't we ban peanut butter? The greater good does not mean what's best for the majority, it's what's best for our most vulnerable.
The greater good is in response to the most vulnerable…utter nonsense. Here’s idea…how about the “most vulnerable” modify their behavior to protect themselves and treatment be provided to people who become I’ll. This is how is was always done until Covid.
Masks do nothing against a respiratory virus like this. There have been over 14 peer-reviewed RCTs that prove this. Social distancing didn’t do anything either. At the height of the epidemic, 8 million Swedish kids went to school with no masks and no social distancing and there were zero deaths. There was also no increased rate of infection in the teachers when compared to the general population. Enough is enough. If you’re scared keep your mask on or stay home and let the rest of us live.
That’s a lie. Don’t you have some anti-Ukrainian propaganda to post instead, comrade?
Sara, do you have proof of whoever you are accusing of being a communist actually being one? Otherwise, you are being slanderous. You should reveal your identity so the person who you accused can sue you for libel if he/she so chooses!
WSR, you are seriously censoring comments. How come you let this one through?
They censor conservative views all the time…don’t like it, do you.
Actually quite opposite, I believe the coverage is very one-sided.
I was speaking against looting during BLM, pro-masks now, and I don’t care about ideology behind it.
Not even clear why you are sarcastic.
Wrong. That’ it, that’s the reply.
Bubbie people like you are the reason why there is a divide and lack of connection in this community. Wake the f up and listen to what is happening in the reality!! You are living with an inhumane attitude that is causing academic harm and long-term mental health issues for the younger generations. If masks work so well then let the immunocompromised children wear theirs.
PLEASE give it up, its time!!!
Precautions taken to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, including wearing masks and distancing, are likely the major reason for a steep decline of flu cases in the U.S., according to experts.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that it had logged 1,316 positive flu cases in its surveillance network between September 2020 and the end of January 2021. During that same period last year, the CDC had recorded nearly 130,000 cases.
Stephen Kissler, a research fellow in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a February 11, 2021 Vox article that while more people received a flu vaccine this year, the sharp drop in cases was probably largely driven by mask-wearing and distancing. Kissler suggested that wearing masks in the future could be an effective way of helping control flu outbreaks. “Wearing masks in the wintertime, I think it’s something that might be here to stay,” he said.
This is correct. Both common cold and flu are down because of the masks. Pre-vaccine the masks provided steep decline in Covid cases.
Given the logic that masks are useless, the doctors shouldn’t wear them either.
Bill…it’s pointless to reason against the religion of the mask
Bubbie, do you have any proof for what you are saying? In Europe, kids did not have to wear masks because masks are considered detrimental to their development. Back up your opinion with facts please – what studies are you referencing – the one that weighs the pros and cons of wearing masks.
Finally! Masks are useless and kids are low risk.
Agree 1000%. The travesty in all of this is that the Biden Admn didn’t allow the use of therapeutics to treat Covid. When was that ever done before? Even smokers who get lung cancer receive treatment regardless of the causal link between the former and the latter. And with Covid there was no contributing behavior (since both vaccinated and unvaccinated catch). Shameful, shameful, shameful behavior that I never thought I’d see in the US.
What is the covid forever crowd going to do? The branch covidians aren’t going to like this.
I for one will continue to wear a mask. I am concerned about going to the theater, movies, etc. and being in close contact with out-of-towners who may be carriers as well as having contact with children under the age of 5. That’s me.
Surprised and pleased that there aren’t more apocalyptic complaints about these long-overdue changes. The mayor’s twitter replies were like a wailing wall.
What’s been missing from the Covid conversation has been acknowledgments of TRADE-OFFS. In public policy you can never get everything you might want, it’s a matter of maximixing the good while minimizing the bad, with an eye to unintended consequences. The price of militant safety-ism and punishing the vax-hesitant has been a generation of stunted children and economic devastation of the city for increasingly marginal benefit, as has been clear for months.
By all means keep masking if it makes you feel better, stay up to date with your boosters and reduce your comorbidities. The more the merrier! Just tolerate that not all of your fellow human beings share your exact priorities and risk assessment.
There’s science and there is nonsense.
[…] Actually, good news times two: our mask mandates are on the verge of ending. This is nice — although a lot of us will still be wearing the masks out of extra caution. […]
When SNL starts mocking the things you desperately have been clinging to for the last 2 years, it’s over ….
https://reason.com/2022/02/27/snl-to-liberals-its-ok-to-question-nonsensical-mask-mandates/?fbclid=IwAR36pIFdyW2FH3Go8i8MXb7Rnm1_kIXlZGMQveA9p8hEvYRVfBhMjV0DWQc