To mask or not to mask. The question remains despite mask mandates going away.
The recent announcement that California’s mask mandate for hospitals and health care facilities is no longer going to be in effect does not mean that all health care workers and all visitors still don’t have to wear them at least for some while yet. The county’s public health director encourages health care facilities to still be cautious.
And according to all the reports this week, local hospitals have various new policies such as one that still requires their workers to wear masks in certain areas such as in patient exam rooms or during certain health procedures and in highly infectious areas.
And while the mask mandate is no longer in effect, those with respiratory symptoms and illnesses are still expected to mask up at hospitals and other health care settings.
There are many people who still wear masks, including shoppers in grocery stores, servers in restaurants and some office workers. There are still people getting COVID, more than three years after the pandemic began, so the virus is still around and may be for a long time if not always.
So while the government mandates are gone, and while critics of masks are not going away, you’re going to still have to wear them in some health care settings. And anyone who wants to still wear one, no matter where they are, should wear one and should not feel discriminated against if they do.
(Photo Getty Images)