On Monday, Philadelphia reinstated its indoor mask mandate because of a slight rise in COVID-19 cases. On Friday, the city announced it was ending the mandate because numbers had allegedly decreased.
The whole ordeal is an example of the city’s incompetent government and an indication of the logical inconsistency surrounding mask mandates.
On Thursday, the city’s Board of Health voted in favor of the reversal. According to a statement from the health department, it cited an alleged decrease in “hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts” as the basis for the decision. But how bad could things have been if it only took four days to reverse the mandate?
Official data showed that Philadelphia was ranked consistently in the “low-risk” category by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Furthermore, the city even rejected the advice of experts from the renowned Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which concluded that wearing masks was not necessary.
In reality, city officials decided on the mask mandate without following any science. The city illogically created its own crisis and then reacted to it.
Democrats like to blame Republicans or “Trump supporters” for refusing to wear masks. But they have been politicizing the pandemic from the very beginning. It’s time for Democrats to acknowledge their role in the controversy over masks. Between elitists not following rules, censoring studies that question the efficacy of masks, or debacles like Philadelphia’s mandate, these things do nothing but reinforce widespread skepticism behind mask-wearing.
And perhaps the greatest risk from Philadelphia’s embarrassment is the typical fallout that comes with “cry wolf syndrome.” People will be reluctant to listen to any future mandates and be even less compliant because of the city’s poor decision-making. Why would anyone trust government officials to be making sound decisions after this week’s events? They’re not trusting the science; they’re just making it up as they go along.
