What's Next When it Comes to Masks in California?

So what happens next when it comes to wearing masks in California?

That’s what many Californians are asking or at least thinking about now that L-A, Sacramento and some Bay Area counties have issued orders or recommendations for everyone, vaccinated and unvaccinated, to go back to wearing masks indoors. The rise in cases in the last 2-3 weeks in the number of new COVID cases and hospitalizations almost all among unvaccinated people has prompted the decisions to have everyone re-mask-up.

What happens next is hard to predict even among top public health officials.

Dr. Karen Smith, a communicable disease physician and former director of the California Department of Public Health told the San Diego Union Tribune that a decision on what to do next is “actually kind of the hardest one”.

She points out that with statewide surveys showing that most vaccinated Californians continue to wear masks in public spaces more often than those unvaccinated, when you recommend even vaccinated people mask, “you’re not going to get that much bang for your buck because they’re already masking at a high rate.” She says the people who need to mask up are the unvaccinated but they’re not going to do that because they’re already not doing it.

So what happens next? If hospitalizations skyrocket, the chances of a statewide mask up order for everyone go up. But if more Californians who are unvaccinated decide to get the vaccine, then we likely won’t have to worry about what happens next.

(Photo Getty Images)