It’s incremental progress, I guess. The University of Minnesota will require masking in the Fall — actually, as of now.
The Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus appears to be much more easily transmitted, resulting in new CDC guidance on masking announced this week. This guidance recommends that in any county where the COVID transmission rate is shown to be substantial or high, individuals wear facial coverings while indoors, whether vaccinated or not.
Relying on this guidance and with the advice of our University public health experts, effective tomorrow, August 3, we are reinstituting the requirement that all students, staff, faculty, contractors, and visitors to our campuses, offices, and facilities, statewide, wear facial coverings while indoors, regardless of your vaccination status. Voluntary mask wearing today, August 2, is encouraged. Masks or facial coverings are not required outdoors.
Wearing a mask or facial covering indoors has been shown to slow the transmission of COVID-19 and, as we saw as a nation, virtually eliminate other airborne illnesses like the flu. This requirement applies to all of our campuses and offices statewide, whether a given location is in a substantial or high transmission county or not.
I hope they don’t expect me to be grateful. Dragging their feet about doing the basic, obvious things and then finally taking a small step in the right direction does not earn my praise. Now do a vaccine requirement next.
Well, four years of actie sabotage hashad an effect.
Local school districts are planning to go maskless because it would be unpopular with a vocal minority.
With Delta being way more transmissible, wearing a mask in close contact situations outdoors is also a good idea.
Vaccination of staff was made a requirement for schools to reopen here (and for keeping jobs) and for variiys types of businesses. It doesn’t apply to kids, but we don’t have a Delta outbreak (yet).
But even with thus and rapidly declining cases numbers, mask restrictions will continue likely until next year.
@dbinmn: vocal minorities are what make democracy work!
#sarcasm
According to The Guardian ,people in Missouri are wearing disguises to get the jab.
“The hottest summer accessories for people who don’t want to die a horrible death but are ashamed to admit it? A wig and dark glasses. It has been reported that some people in Missouri, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the US, are wearing disguises to their vaccine appointments because they are terrified their anti-vaxxer friends and family might find out that they are protecting themselves from a deadly virus. A local healthcare provider has even started advertising “discreet” appointments for people who want to keep their shot secret. “If you are afraid of walking into a public area where you might be seen getting your vaccine, we will work to accommodate even more of a private setting for you to receive your vaccine,” Ozarks Healthcare said in a statement.”
What a strange place amurica is.
The board of trustees for my school district in northern California adopted a vaccine mandate at a special meeting last night. The chancellor and his staff will now be working to implement the mandate immediately for the fall semester on our four college campuses. The board president offered an observation on the two-hour public comment period. She noted that a remarkable number of negative commenters were from outside the district (several from San Diego, 500 miles away) and were neither faculty, staff, nor student. Apparently antivaxxers stand ready to spew their misinformation whenever called to duty. The resolution passed by a vote of 6 to 1.