Philadelphia to end mask mandate, days after reinstating it

[Celerity]

https://apnews.com/article/covid-business-health-philadelphia-be64725ec3e823165326b22b5977974e



Philadelphia is ending its indoor mask mandate, city health officials said Thursday night, abruptly reversing course just days after people in the city had to start wearing masks again amid a sharp increase in infections.

The Board of Health voted Thursday to rescind the mandate, according to the Philadelphia health department, which released a statement that cited “decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts.” The mandate went into effect Monday. Philadelphia had ended its earlier indoor mask mandate March 2.

The health department did not release data to back up its reversal on masking, saying more information would be provided Friday. But the acting health commissioner, Dr. Cheryl Bettigole, told the Board of Health at a public meeting Thursday night that hospitalizations had unexpectedly gone down 25% in a matter of days.

“We’re in a situation that we really had not anticipated being in this soon but it is good news,” she said, according to a transcript of the meeting. “So I’m really very happy ... to say it appears that we no longer need to mandate masks in Philadelphia and that we can actually move to simply a strong recommendation.”

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[FBaggins]

1. Incredible

Covid numbers don’t change that fast (certainly not in a positive direction). Something else is behind the change.

They claim to see a four day drop in hospitalizations… but they must know that hospitalizations during the pandemic have lagged infection rates by far more than four days. If they saw increased infection rates on Monday they can’t possibly evaluate hospitalizations from that surge on Thursday.

[Amishman]

2. Political backlash

I'm 90 minutes outside Philly and still heard quite a lot of complaints

[FBaggins]

3. Indeed- "Few masks were worn at the Philadelphia 76ers' home playoff game on Monday,"

“even though they were required under city rules.”



https://6abc.com/amp/philadelphia-indoor-mask-mandate-department-of-health-covid-in-philly-policy/11778105/

[MichMan]

4. What is the point of it if you are unwilling to enforce it?

[Amishman]

5. exactly, which is why it was cancelled immediately

It was very clear that the vast majority of the public was unwilling to do it, and hard enforcement is not viable. This left the only option being to back down, which they did.