The Surgeon General Supports Local Mask Requirements – U.S.

The U.S. Surgeon General endorsed reinstating local mask mandates during a speech Sunday when they are needed to control COVID-19 among the uninformed. The municipality should take more mitigation measures, such as the mask regulations coming into place in Los Angeles, and he anticipates this will happen in other parts of the country as well, Murthy said on ABC’s “This Week.” As the highly contagious Delta variant rips through unvaccinated populations, it will likely become more necessary for local authorities to enforce prevention measures, according to Murthy, according to the Washington Post.

The Surgeon General Supports Local Mask Requirements – U.S.

To respond to new outbreaks, local officials can also shed masks when gathering indoors after being fully vaccinated, according to Murthy. However, the guidelines provide local officials with flexibility, he explained, because they are also meant to give CDC guidelines flexibility. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals are affected by this newly reinstated mask requirement.

Additionally, Hilda Solis, chairwoman of the board of supervisors of Los Angeles County, said COVID-19 cases averaging 1,900 per day last week prompted the new mandate. Solis said he wasn’t happy about returning to mask use in this manner, but at the moment it will save lives, and that’s the most important thing. It was noted there are almost all new hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 among the unvaccinated, said CDC official Rochelle Walensky on Friday. 

Vaccine safety can be trusted, Murthy told CNN’s “State of the Union,” the Post reports. He hopes people will feel reassured by the fact that the vaccine is very effective at preventing severe infections, including hospitalizations and deaths, and if a breakthrough infection is detected, which is not typical, it is likely to be a mild or asymptomatic infection.

It was reported last week that he has warned people about how misinformation about the Coronavirus – and the vaccines to protect them – has put people at risk for death, and spoke of the need for social media platforms to do more to stop it. President Biden lashed out at big tech companies the next day: “They’re killing people.”

Reporting on the warnings led Facebook to blame Murthy for publicly praising them while privately blaming him for failing to meet Biden’s vaccination targets. The administration was defended by Murthy on Sunday.

In Murthy’s CNN interview, he stated that recognizing when steps are taken that are positive is important. The technology companies have taken steps in the right direction. Publicly and privately, he also tells them that it is not enough and that they are still seeing a proliferation of false information on the internet.

In many states, mandates requiring vaccinations and passports are being banned in schools. School districts across the country are taking steps to prevent COVID-19 vaccinations and proof of vaccination from being required at public schools as they prepare for reopening this fall. As CNN reported, seven states –Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Oklahoma, Montana, and Utah — have already passed laws limiting how much proof of vaccination must be provided, while 34 others have introduced proposals that would expand the scope.

The passage of such laws leaves public health officials concerned about the limitations they could impose on efforts to combat the spread of Coronavirus and its variants. As of June, Oklahoma banned public schools from requiring vaccination against COVID-19 for entry or attendance. Likewise, a law in Utah forbids public school districts from requiring individuals to receive vaccines against COVID-19.

Brent Ewig, a policy consultant for the Association of Immunization Managers, told CNN that public health officials are concerned about the impact of prohibiting certain vaccine requirements on public opinion toward both coronavirus vaccines and longstanding school vaccination requirements.

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