On Saturday Feb. 26, the Long Beach Health Department will partially lift the mask mandate for fully vaccinated people. This decision comes on the heels of an announcement from Los Angeles County that starting Friday, they will allow businesses and venues to lift their indoor mask mandates.
For a large majority of the pandemic, Long Beach City College has followed suit when it comes to setting and lifting restrictions and it would not be surprising if the school were to make an announcement in the following days that students are no longer required to wear masks indoors.
Although this is the direction that things seem to be trending in, many students and faculty feel that perhaps it is too soon to not require people on campus to wear masks in doors. Of course, it is certainly not a stretch to say it’s too soon, especially when considering that the number of deaths reported in the month of February were the second highest of any month since 2020.
These two writers from the Long Beach Viking News weigh in on whether or not LBCC should lose their mask mandate.
Craig Roberts: Keep masks on to saves lives
Safety is paramount during a crisis of health, but when does safety begin to be too restrictive?
Los Angeles county will be dropping its mask mandate come Friday morning just after midnight, meaning that people can go indoors with no mask as long as you have your vaccine status cleared.
While Long Beach is part of LA county, the city has its own health department which routinely follows the county’s actions. In this instance, Long Beach will be dropping the indoor mask mandate for vaccinated individuals on Saturday under the same conditions.
Despite this, there’s a list of settings where a mask is still required regardless.
But is it really time to be easing mandates? Outdoors, certainly with proper spacing and vaccine requirements, but indoors where space could be limited and air may not circulate well?
The pandemic is still raging with case counts reaching record highs in mid January according to data from the New York Times. Should we really ease things with a more contagious variant out, even if it’s not as dangerous to the vaccinated?
No, the mask mandate should continue. So many around us are at an increased risk that essentially negates the fact that the Omicron variant isn’t as lethal. For those that are auto-immune compromised, catching COVID could be extremely debilitating or lethal.
And besides, we could put into consideration how we are propagating something we’re failing to control even more when it’s still killing so many every day.
The argument can be made that the same goes for the flu, pneumonia, and other endemic diseases which regularly kill the vulnerable and have their seasons of increased cases.
However, this is not a good excuse to continue something that can effectively be stopped in its tracks, especially with the tools available to us in our day and age.
Indoors, the masks should continue in an effort to help us keep the spread of COVID down while also allowing some way to get back in person.
Social distancing and being vaccinated alone aren’t enough if we’re spreading the same amount of germs and have a more direct means to inhale them.
Besides, we’re already so accustomed to masks from wearing them for so long, so why ditch them when they’re needed most?
James Conley: A fully vaccinated campus doesn’t need masks
After almost two years of being in effect, it’s time for Long Beach City College to lift its mask mandate.
Los Angeles County will officially lift its indoor mask mandate Friday, Feb. 25.
These changes are happening in LA county because the number of positive covid cases are drastically dropping while the number of people who are vaccinated increases.
Being that Long Beach City College is in LA County, LBCC should follow its county’s guidelines.
All LBCC students and faculty must be fully vaccinated unless they have medical or religious exemption; the exempt must submit weekly negative Covid-19 tests.
LBCC has a website that lists all recent positive Covid-19 cases; there have not been any new cases on campus since January 12th 2022.
Because there haven’t been any new cases and everyone on campus is fully vaccinated or at least testing negative for Covid-19, I think it would be more than appropriate for LBCC to lift its mask mandate.
I believe in science and trust that the vaccines are effective against Covid-19 and its many variants.
Taking into consideration the effectiveness of the vaccines, deep cleanings, and social distancing, the people of LBCC do not need a law that enforces the wearing of masks.
Masks are still effective in reducing the spread of germs, bacteria, and viruses; if anyone still wants to wear a mask for extra protection, they can and should do that.
Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the United States, Anthony Fauci, believes that Covid will become endemic, and I think Covid should be treated like other endemic diseases.
It has been fun to see everyone looking like outlaws and ninjas the past few years, but it’s time to attempt to return to some sort of normalcy.