The mayor’s office announced that the City will re-institute a mask mandate for all internal public spaces (stores, restaurants, etc) beginning next Thursday. Newton will be joining some of its neighboring towns with its response to the latest Delta wave of Covid spread.
Indoor mask mandate returns Thursday
by Jerry Reilly | Aug 27, 2021 | Newton | 15 comments
At least she finally did it…. Now lets talk about vaccinations
Finally. This is good news! Agree with NewtonMom, let’s talk vaccines now…
I get that folks are impatient for stuff like this (and it quickly got political), but in retrospect looks like a reasonable approach to me by the Mayor. I predicted we’d have a full mask mandate in place by early September. Once the School Committee approved it for the schools, the next logical step is for Newton as a whole to have one. Boston’s mask mandate goes into effect today, Newton’s a few days later.
The hospital and ICU numbers in Newton continue to be low, zero deaths for quite some time. But with school starting up 8 days later, the timing makes sense. I continue to think it won’t have the impact we’d like it to have as a community due to lack of conformity (by unvaccinated and vaccinated alike) and quality of masks, but something is better than nothing.
As for a vaccine mandates, I don’t see that happening on a governmental level. Perhaps for city employees and school employees as a condition of employment absent religious or health objection. But the idea Newton will be going door to door requiring vaccinations isn’t going to happen no matter who is mayor. But private companies can require vaccinations for in-person employment, and many will.
I may be wrong Fig but I believe that the request on the table to the Mayor is to require it of City employees, just as MA is requiring of State worker and many large employers are requiring. I haven’t heard a suggestion that Newton go door to door. Did I miss that?
The usual woke political BS from the mayor. I wonder if she would have done it if it weren’t for an election coming up. It doesn’t matter it’s not enforced and plenty of people didn’t comply before and that won’t change now.
Woke and more woke. That sums her up. It won’t be enforced anyway so pure virtue signaling. Very few businesses will toss people out for not wearing masks. This can and should be ignored.
What took so long? And how bad would MA’s COVID numbers need to get again for Charlie to follow suit?
Fortunately, Newton has a very high vaccination rate overall. And the Delta Variant has been shown to cause less severe infections among the vast majority of those who are fully vaccinated. Still, masks do add an extra layer of protection against a COVID variant that spreads “as easily as chicken pox” according to some studies.
Ultimately, the vaccines will win the war and eliminate the need for more draconian shutdowns that were required to “flatten the curve” in previous COVID surges. That being said, as long as COVID variants like Delta are out there (let alone until we have a better understanding of how effective the vaccines still are 6-12 months later), masks are likely to remain part of the new normal for the foreseeable future. Especially in overly crowded, poorly ventilated, packed like sardines indoors settings where social distancing is strongly discouraged or impossible.
The “public indoor spaces” mask mandate for vaccinated Newtonians is purely optics on the part of the mayor and her public health department, likely to have zero actual impact in our highly Covid-safe community. According to the mayors own figures over 90% of eligible Newtonians 12 and older are fully vaxxed. The recent case load per week (symptomatic and asymptomatic) is below 50 and dropping, in a city of 90,000 including resident college students. Incidence rate is dropping and positive test rate around 1% and declining. Again, all from the mayors own reported data. These numbers are receding toward the pre-Delta lows of early summer. Based on all this data it appears highly unlikely one will contract Covid going forward from casual unmasked indoor contact as it is very difficult to do so at these low levels when virtually everyone is vaccinated. In addition many Newtonians are voluntarily masking and were doing so during the brief small rise in Covid cases and will likely continue to do so (again, emphasis on “voluntarily”). Children not eligible for vaccine yet will be masking in schools which makes sense. Very few children have contracted Covid in Newton suggesting they are well protected being in contact with 90%+ vaccinated unmasked community members outside of school. If Covid was an actual risk in Newton or if we had a large cohort of unvaccinated adults for whom a mandate was the only way to effectively minimize the risk, a mandate on all might be in order. But unlike areas of the country where such risk is high, based on statistics above Newton may be the least vulnerable to Covid municipality of its size in the country. In sum, this coercive mandate on vaccine-compliant individuals is a purely political “me-too” gesture under the pressure of a likely contested mayoral election.
The masks did play a role in reducing the spread during the earlier waves of the pandemic, though that continually diminished as the virus became increasingly transmissible.
With the super-contagious Delta, the masks commonly worn by most will have zero positive impact. So this policy is 100 percent driven by political correctness. And I’m not trying to knock the mayor, because she really had no choice. The governor (unless he opts against a third term) will probably come to the same political conclusion this fall.
Please do not think I’m trying to downplay the danger this virus poses to many in Newton, which is an older community. Its terribly dangerous. But the public health messaging has been terrible from the start.. and it continues to be. Rather than “Mask up everybody!” the focus should be on the type of mask worn by those who are vulnerable. I see elderly folks inside wearing surgical masks, open at the sides, hoping they are being protected by essentially what is a loose-fitting piece of paper or cloth. That’s because the message has been to just “mask up.” It’s ridiculous, really.
KN95 masks, properly fitted, perhaps covered by a cloth mask, should be the message to those who have a reason to be super concerned about COVID.
That’s because the paper and cloth masks worn by everybody else, ostensibly to block their potential virus shed, are nothing more than window dressing at this point.
As for why a 20-something wears one of these masks, outdoors with no other human within 50 feet?
I don’t get that.
@ Andy Levin “Rather than “Mask up everybody!” the focus should be on the type of mask worn by those who are vulnerable.”
I disagree. The focus should be on getting everyone one can be vaccinated. Anything less is a band-aid. Any sort of face mask when indicated, in the interim is a good thing
Good to see Andy Levin on V14. But I’ll take a moment to disagree with him on masks. It’s my understanding that masks remain an effective tool to fight COVID transmission. It stands to reason that masks are even more effective when worn by everyone in public settings. The more barriers we place between the virus and those who are vulnerable, the harder it is to transmit.
Not sure why my comment is on hold for moderation, but I will try again. The point I was making is that the debate on masks is a bit of a distraction. I support them, but what we really need it to have everyone who doesn’t have a contra-indication to get vaccinated
Agree the masks are a distraction and that the vaccines are the best weapon against severe COVID. Unfortunately I think we are bound to see a lot of natural immunity built up here over the next several months, especially among younger cohorts. My teenage daughter had the UK variant in April. She was fairly sick for three days (less than a flu, though), but very thankfully no after effects.
She still insisted on getting the vaccine after, even though I told her she could probably wait a few months.
The only part of Andy’s comment that resonates is the importance of getting high-quality masks if you need to be indoors for any amount of time and wearing them properly. Otherwise, I have no idea where he’s getting his information. However, if I run into him, I’ll definitely keep my distance. So good information on several levels, Andy!
Remember the interesting side effect of our common mask wearing and hand washing this past year: far fewer flu cases.
I agree that KN95 masks, readily available online, properly fitted to the face with no gaps, will better protect than a thin surgical one; nonetheless, I know that Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Dana-Farber and Beth Israel Needham all offer surgical masks to those entering the premises, so the health care world must believe they have some value.