Tag: face masks

Orange County Sheriff: We’re Not Responding To Calls Over Masks, Gatherings Under Newsom’s Lockdown

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes announced Thursday that his deputies are not responding to calls over masks and social gatherings under Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest stay-at-home order.

Newsom issued a new partial lockdown order scheduled to take effect on Saturday night to combat the coronavirus. Barnes responded to the announcement by saying that his already stretched department would not rigorously enforce new regulations over masking and crowd sizes.

“Earlier today, the Orange County sheriff’s department became aware of a limited Stay at Home Order that Governor Newsom’s office ordered to go into effect on Saturday, November 21 at 10 PM,” Barnes said in a statement. “Throughout the pandemic, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department has taken an education-first approach with regard to the public health orders. We are currently assessing the action by the governor. At this time, due to the need to have deputies available for emergency calls for service, deputies will not be responding to requests for face-coverings or social gatherings-only enforcement.”

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Masks to be required between bites and sips while dining out in Shelby County

Restaurants owners are expressing frustration with the Shelby County Health Department directive released Friday evening, worried the latest round of restrictions will deter people from dining out.

The directive, which takes effect Monday, requires restaurants and bars to close at 10 p.m. and caps them at 50% capacity as opposed to the 75% capacity they’re currently allowed.

Other notable restrictions include a six-person-per-table limit and a requirement that restaurant patrons wear masks in between bites and sips.

“I feel like the health department treats everybody like children,” said Halsey Werlein, general manager of Pontotoc Lounge on South Main. 

“I don’t know how we’re gonna have somebody at each table right after they take a bite or they take a sip, have them pull up their mask,” Werlein said.

It’s a concern shared by other restaurant owners. 

“We’re doing everything that we can and, you know, this is a burden on us,” said Memphis Restaurant Association President-elect Mike Miller, who also owns Patrick’s. 

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Gavin Newsom’s French Laundry Outing Crystallizes the Arrogance of COVID-19 Dictators

As J.D. Tuccille notes, this sort of double standard is par for the course during the COVID-19 epidemic, when politicians such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.), Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D), and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D–Calif.) have felt free to flout the disease control safeguards that mere mortals are told to observe. “We’re expected to suffer discomfort, economic pain, and emotional distress or else pay fines and even serve jail time,” Tuccille writes. “Government officials, meanwhile, take offense when called out for violating the standards they created.”

While Newsom did not take offense, he did offer excuses, and he did not acknowledge that he was breaking the law he had laid down—not merely its “spirit,” but its specific requirements. “We certainly hope Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, enjoyed their dinner at the Michelin-starred restaurant,” The Sacramento Bee editorialized. “Because it will end up costing a lot more than $700 in terms of damage to Newsom’s credibility in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nothing will launder the stain of stupidity from his reputation after this ill-conceived outing.”

The paper also noted that Newsom’s children are attending private school while most public schools remain shuttered. “Newsom and the First Partner eschewed state public health guidelines to dine with friends at a time when the governor has asked families to scale back Thanksgiving plans,” the Bee observed. “If the governor can eat out with friends—and if his children can attend their expensive school—why must everyone else sacrifice?”

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New Danish Study Finds Masks Don’t Protect Wearers From COVID Infection

Few issues are more contentious in modern American life than mandatory mask orders. And the debate is about to get even more heated.

A newly released study in the academic journal Annals of Internal Medicine casts more doubt on policies that force healthy individuals to wear face coverings in hopes of limiting the spread of COVID-19.

“Researchers in Denmark reported on Wednesday that surgical masks did not protect the wearers against infection with the coronavirus in a large randomized clinical trial,” the New York Times reports.

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Let celebrity culture burn: Hypocritical movie stars and politicians break their own Covid-19 advice while shaming the rest of us

One can argue to death the science behind the risk factors of Penn’s decision. He and Dorsey could both be negative for Covid-19, they are outdoors, etc. But there are no ifs, ands, or buts to his mask tweet or his ranting interviews on CNN. He makes no exceptions, so why should we? States like California have travel advisories in place, warning people to skip out on jetting around for the holidays, and mask mandates can be found all over the US. When was the last time you walked shirtless on a beach without a mask in Hawaii? 

The Covid-19 pandemic has put a cruel, yet honest light on celebrity culture in the US. From interviews about the pandemic with Stephen King to Penn, this light has revealed an ugly obsession with the idea of celebrity, as well as the need for many to connect celebrity status with intelligence and perspective, especially on the left. 

And this celebrity cult goes far beyond the star of ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ as this obsession with public figures has also infected politics, and it’s only been worsened during Covid.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo can’t tell New Yorkers enough about how their behavior has helped spread Covid-19 in his state. While he’s been running this shame campaign, however, Cuomo has traveled out of state and been seen without a mask.

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