Forget it Jake, It's Baltimore

Balmer Sun, Baltimore County declares state of emergency, reinstates indoor mask mandate amid rising COVID cases

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. on Monday declared a COVID-related state of emergency and is requiring face coverings at indoor public spaces beginning Wednesday morning.

The mandate will go into effect at 9 a.m. on Dec. 29 and applies to all individuals 5 and older patronizing restaurants and food businesses, retail stores, houses of worship or any establishment that serves the public. The County Council will have to approve extending the order until Jan. 31; they’re scheduled to take up a vote at their Jan. 3 meeting, according to a news release.

The order comes as cases across Maryland surge and the omicron variant spreads. The state health department recorded more than 25,000 new COVID-19 cases between Thursday and Sunday and the state’s seven-day average positivity rate bounded past 15%.

Frankly, our county doesn't look a whole lot better. Ready or not, Omicron is coming. And this helpful tip via Capt. Ed at Haut Hair, CNN expert: Cloth masks are useless "face decorations" at this point

This has made the social-media rounds since yesterday, but it’s been true for the past year or more anyway. “There’s no place for them in light of Omicron,” Dr. Leana Wen told CNN’s Victor Blackwell, but there wasn’t any place for them in light of Delta, Beta, or any other variant either. Cloth masks only provide minimal mitigation against viral transmission of any kind, and their only virtue is their existence in an environment where no other options exist.

That was the mitigation context in April 2020. It hasn’t been the case for well over a year (via Townhall):

I would say that if you choose to go, make sure that you’re vaccinated and boosted, make sure that you’re wearing a mask, even though it’s outdoors, if there are lots of people packed around you, wearing a three-ply surgical mask. Don’t wear a cloth mask. Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There’s no place for them in light of Omicron. And so wear a high-quality mask, at least a three-ply surgical mask. And if you’re going to be visiting elderly relatives or immunocompromised people after, wait three days, get tested, and then see those vulnerable.

The cloth-mask phenomenon has served no other significant practical purpose than virtue signaling. When we had a massive shortage of PPE, it may have served as the only option for mitigation, but cloth masks were only slightly better than nothing — and only then when handled properly, ie, constant disinfecting, washing, etc. We haven’t had “nothing” for personal PPE since late spring of 2020, however, and that’s when cloth masking should have been discarded.

 

Surgical masks such as those recommended by Wen offer more significant mitigation, but they don’t entirely prevent viral transmission either for a variety of reasons. For one thing, they don’t fit airtight around the mouth and nose, and moisture eventually eliminates the electrostatic functions between the layers. (Plus, touching the outside provides a route for viral transfer.) The best option for masking are N95 masks, manufactured to a standard that does prevent viral transmission, but those are difficult to tolerate for long periods of time because they work so well.

Even those are probably not “full protection” against Omicron, either, but that’s missing the point a bit. It’s about levels of mitigation, not guaranteed prevention. Wen’s advice is rational, although mask-wearing outdoors is almost entirely pointless. Until someone demonstrates any evidence of outdoor transmission of COVID-19 outside of sustained physical contact — we have no reliable evidence of such — there’s no need to mitigate against it. In fact, it’s a waste of surgical masks. Cloth masks outside are even more pointless than they are indoors.

So why does the White House continue to model their use? That’s a question worth asking. It appears to only function as a way for Joe Biden to wear the presidential seal as a brand.

Or, as looks likely, we could all get Omicron.