Will The Lawton City Council Mandate Masks City Wide Again?
With masks now being required once again at all city owned properties, I think most people are naturally starting to wonder if and when the city wide mandate will follow. It's a fair question, and I'd doubt anyone with sway could give a straight answer to it anyway. There's just too much unknown about this current spike of the covid at the moment to make a definitive call at the moment, especially since the success or failure of the last mandate is still unclear.
It's hard to argue with the science that proves a proper fitting N95 or better mask prevents the transmission of this virus, but you could probably count on one hand how many N95 or better masks any of us saw in a trip to the grocery store last year. With what passed as being masked, it seemed to be more of a "make it seem we're trying" false virtue signaling effort rather than an actual stride towards safety, but by the time officials admitted they lied about masks effectiveness and started recommending them, the distrust was far too great.
Worse yet, homemade masks were our best effort to conform, but there's no telling how effective they were. School districts all over the state are mulling over their mask policy problems now, but if you look at the masks that were generally provided, the thin stretchy and washable type, they probably didn't help much in the grand scheme of things. Especially true since people got the idea that since they were technically wearing masks, social distancing wasn't as important.
Social distancing is probably the most important aspect of keeping yourself as far away from the rona as possible. I say probably because unlike the Karen's and Jared's on facebook, I'm not going to pretend I know anything about any of this beyond my own personal opinion cemented in logical thought.
It was only a few months ago that the gov said those who have been vaccinated could then go without masks. Suddenly, regardless of vax status, masks disappeared for the most part and most people went about back to a normal face to face, crowded restaurant, concert-going public existence, and cases started once again to climb.
Will the answer be another forced mask mandate? I'm sure a measurable percentage of people will agree with that and the other portion won't. What about shut downs? Australia, the UK, and Europe are all starting to lock down again after just the smallest taste of summer freedom. As some states like Oklahoma and Florida swear the option off the table while others like California and Michigan eye it as an impending possibility, it has to be on the minds of city leaders since they've forced that measure once before. All the same, even if Lawton's elected elite decided to go that route, the Area 51 raid and tons of 2020 protests reminded us without a doubt, they can't stop us all.
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