Column: Newsom and Garcetti fumble with maskless mugging

Columnist

Jan. 31, 2022 6:26 PM PT

I had a doctor appointment Monday and everybody I saw at the clinic, including patients and staff, wore the mandatory mask.

That makes sense, right? A public place, with the possibility of COVID-19 exposure. Mask up for your own protection and in consideration of medical staff and other patients.

When I was done, I headed out to a nursing facility in Montebello to visit a friend, but I wasn’t allowed inside because of a COVID-19 outbreak. An administrator led my pal to a window so I could say “happy birthday” to him through the glass. He was wearing a mask. The administrator wore a mask and a shield.

And of course California has a mask mandate for K-12 students, whether they’re vaccinated or not.

So why then did Gov. Gavin Newsom, the man behind the school mandate, go to the Rams-49ers game Sunday and pose for a photo with Magic Johnson, both of them maskless?

And why did L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who frequently touted his pandemic response while warning us to play it safe, also show his maskless mug at the same game, as did San Francisco Mayor London Breed?

Well, you could say they just weren’t using their heads, or that they’re hypocrites, or both.

Reps for the governor and Garcetti said both guys wore their masks at the game but removed them briefly for photographs.

Why?

Have we not seen their smiling faces often enough?

This doesn’t approach the magnitude of hypocrisy in Newsom’s French Laundry faux pas in the fall of 2020, when the governor dined in style with a lobbyist and other chums while ordering all of us to hibernate.

And it’s not the crime of the century. Newsom said Monday that he was “judicious” about wearing a mask other than when he dropped it for the photo op. The same may be true of Garcetti.

But tens of thousands of people are about to descend on L.A. for the Super Bowl in what could be a superspreader event, and it’s not great optics, as they say, for the California governor to be telling students they can’t take off their masks unless they’re eating, but he can take his off at a ballgame.

Among other considerations, the state has a mask mandate for outdoor mega-events with 5,000 or more people, and L.A. County requires masks at all large indoor and outdoor events except while eating.

So frick and frack handed ammo to all the vaccine doubters and mask foes at a time when a lot of people are wondering, for good reason, how to interpret conflicting messages about what we can and can’t do, and what’s safe and what’s not. They kind of gave cover to all the fans who worked themselves into a frenzy at the ballgame, carrying on without masks despite a stadium mandate.

What is the point of having rules that aren’t enforced, or followed by the public officials who keep telling us to play it safe?

L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger had this to say:

“Masking rules set by the state and county weren’t followed consistently by everyone at yesterday’s NFC championship. … Let’s do away with blanket COVID-19 masking policies — they don’t make a difference when they’re not consistently followed or enforced.”

She has a point, but maybe a more important point is to wonder why the rules aren’t enforced.

Larry from Murrieta emailed me his two cents:

“With Mr. Newsom and other political figures running around maskless at the football game, this should once and for all prove to you that this is something other than dangerous. You should no longer ask the public to ‘mask up.’ It’s a fraud. Don’t you think?”

No, I don’t think COVID-19 is a fraud, nor have I lost faith in masks. I’m vaccinated and boosted, as are presumably the mayor and governor, but I still wear a mask for added protection and out of respect for — among others — the medical front-liners who are inundated by surges and forced to risk their own lives treating those who refuse vaccines and shun masks.

And I became weary months ago of all the whiners who act as though wearing a mask is such an Olympic sacrifice.

As The Times reports, coronavirus cases are declining dramatically, but the death rate remains stubbornly high. Forty COVID-19 deaths were reported in L.A. County on Sunday — the day of the game. Last Wednesday, the county had the single highest number of COVID-19 deaths during the Omicron surge with 91, including a child of 15 months.

There will be a time, and I hope it’s sooner rather than later, when we can all let our guard down a bit. But before that happens, we don’t need the people in charge jumping the gun and sending the wrong message.

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Kimberly Shriner of Huntington Hospital told me she advises people to keep playing it cautious even though we’ve turned the corner. I checked back in with the infectious-disease specialist Monday to see if she thinks we can begin getting casual now about wearing masks.

“Masks are safe, protective, inexpensive and still important to prevent transmission when you are in close proximity to other people. Especially if you don’t know their vaccine status,” Shriner said.

“Although much less common, transmission with the very infectious Omicron variant and even more infectious Omicron sub-variant can occur outside in tight crowds. Masks will continue to be an important tool to decrease community transmission during this and any upcoming surges....

“Letting our guard down now could prolong the surge and allow a new variant to emerge. Death rates always follow surges and are the sad end to another chapter of COVID.”

Guess who needs to grab some chalk and write those words 500 times on the nearest blackboard?

steve.lopez@latimes.com