L.A. County Sheriff Will Not Enforce New Mask Mandate
“Not backed by science”: Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Friday he will not enforce the new mandatory indoor mask requirement set to take effect this weekend.
QUICK FACTS:
- The indoor mask mandate would apply regardless of a persons’ vaccination status.
- Sheriff Villanueva will not use his department to enforce the mandatory indoor mask requirement which is to take effect on Saturday night, according to Fox News.
- The Sheriff said that forcing those who are vaccinated or who have already contracted COVID-19 to wear masks indoors “is not backed by science and contradicts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.”
- The new mandate goes into effect at 11:59 pm on Saturday.
- All indoor spaces—gyms, retail stores, large events, offices, and restaurants—will require mask-wearing.
WHAT SHERIFF VILLANUEVA SAID:
- Villanueva said in a statement that forcing the vaccinated or who have already contracted COVID-19 to wear masks indoors “is not backed by science and contradicts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.”
- “The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) has authority to enforce the order, but the underfunded/defunded Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will not expend our limited resources and instead ask for voluntary compliance,” Villanueva added.
- He also said, “We encourage the DPH to work collaboratively with the Board of Supervisors and law enforcement to establish mandates that are both achievable and supported by science.”
BACKGROUND:
- On Thursday, the county Department of Public Health reinstated a requirement that masks be worn indoors even by the vaccinated.
- The move comes a month after California dropped its statewide mask mandate for vaccinated people.
- Updated guidance on the CDC website says, “Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.”
- The LA County Health Department announced “incentives for receiving the vaccine, saying that starting Friday through July 22, people 18 and older can have a chance at winning grand prizes if they get vaccinated at county-run vaccination sites, LA City sites, and St. John’s Well Child and Family Center sites,” reports The Epoch Times. “There are seven packages of tickets to attend the Staples Center to certain performances.”
6th Texas Democrat Tests Positive For COVID, Along With White Official And Pelosi Staffer After Maskless Flight To Avoid Work
A sixth Texas Democrat has tested positive for COVID after a group of over 50 lawmakers took a maskless flight out of state to avoid voting on Republican election integrity bills in the state legislature.
The Dallas Morning News reported on the sixth positive result being confirmed on Monday.
One White House official and a staffer for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also tested positive. The Pelosi staffer gave a tour of the Capitol to the Texas Democrats last week, and then attended the same party as the White House official.
The news comes after The Political Insider reported on the other five lawmakers having contracted COVID-19 over the weekend.
They fled their state on a pair of flights chartered by the Texas House Democratic Caucus at a price tag of $100,000 in order to break quorum with their Republican colleagues.
The Texas Democrats famously took selfies aboard the plane showing they were not wearing masks despite federal guidelines stating they should be worn on all “onboard commercial aircraft.”
Another Texas Democrat Tests Positive
The PR stunt has been a disaster for the Texas Democrats after over 10% of their crew have now tested positive for COVID.
The Dallas Morning News does a decent job of putting it into words, however.
“The runaways spent Monday strategizing ways to prod Congress for new voting rights protections without being able to lobby in person,” they write.
Essentially, they’ve been reduced to the same level of effectiveness they would have had if they simply stayed home rather than trying to subvert democracy by leaving Texas.
Still, State Representative Rhetta Bowers (Dallas) was viewing the circus-like effort with rose-colored glasses.
“It definitely is not stopping our work,” she said. “We’re just having to be a whole lot more careful.”
Top Health Officer Orders Australians: ‘Don’t Have a Conversation’ With Each Other
Even if you’re wearing a mask.
The chief health officer of New South Wales gave a press conference telling Australians that they shouldn’t “engage in conversation with each other,” even if they’re wearing masks, in order to reduce the transmission of COVID.
Yes, really.
Dr. Kerry Chant made the remarks in response to people in NSW being ordered to comply with yet another lockdown triggered by just a handful of new cases, which included a man in Cootamundra who visited a Woolworths supermarket, Pizza Hut restaurant, petrol station and Officeworks store.
“Whilst it’s human nature to engage in conversation with others, to be friendly, unfortunately this is not the time to do that,” said Chant.
“So even if you run into your next door neighbor in the shopping center…don’t start up a conversation, now is the time for minimizing your interactions with others, even if you’ve got a mask, do not think that affords total protection, we wanna be absolutely sure that as we go about our daily lives we do not come into contact with anyone else that would pose a risk,” she added.
Foo Fighters ‘Vaccinated Only’ Concert Canceled After Band Member Gets COVID as Breakthrough Cases on the Rise
As of July 12, the CDC reported 5,492 breakthrough COVID cases resulting in hospitalization or death. Meanwhile, states continue to report more breakthrough cases, and the New York Yankees cancel series opener after fully vaccinated players test positive.
Reports of COVID breakthrough cases continue to rise — as of July 12, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 5,492 breakthrough cases resulting in death and hospitalization.
A breakthrough case refers to anyone who is diagnosed with COVID after being fully vaccinated. A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna COVID vaccine, or two weeks after receiving the single-dose Johnson & Johnson(J&J) vaccine.
In May, the CDC revised its system for reporting breakthrough cases, stating it would count only those cases that result in hospitalization or death. Previously, the agency had included in its breakthrough count anyone who tested positive for COVID.
Some states follow the new CDC guidance for counting breakthrough cases. Other states continue to report, at the state level, all cases where an individual tests positive, but may choose to report only hospitalizations and deaths to the CDC.
Illinois, Massachusetts update breakthrough case numbers
According to data updated July 14 by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), 151 people in Illinois have died from COVID or COVID-related complications after being fully vaccinated. At least 563 fully vaccinated people were hospitalized, IDPH said.
Illinois follows CDC guidance, reporting only on breakthrough infections among those who have been hospitalized or died. The state does not publicize the number of residents who tested positive after being fully vaccinated but did not die or require hospitalization in order to “help maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance,” IDPH’s website states.
In Massachusetts, public health officials have tracked 4,450 breakthrough cases, WBUR reported. About 92% of those cases did not result in hospitalization, while 303 people, or 6.8%, were hospitalized, according to Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) data through July 10.
Seventy-nine vaccinated residents in Massachusetts died from COVID, either without being hospitalized or following a hospital stay, DPH said.
According to NBC Boston, officials in Provincetown — a tourist destination with one of the highest vaccination rates in the state — sounded the alarm after a handful of new COVID cases “overwhelmingly” affecting fully vaccinated individuals were reported in the community in recent days.
Town Manager Alex Morse said July 13, “Overwhelmingly, the affected individuals have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19. The moderate intensity of symptoms indicates that the vaccines are working as predicted.”
According to the state, there were 34 new COVID cases reported in the county in the past 14 days. Health officials said they are closely monitoring the situation.
Hundreds of fully vaccinated Alaskans got COVID
Despite being fully vaccinated against COVID, more than 656 Alaskans tested positive for the virus between February and June, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.
Of the 656 breakthrough cases, 17 people were hospitalized and two people died with COVID, though health officials noted both had other “substantial comorbidities.”
About 52% of the Alaska breakthrough cases studied occurred among people who showed symptoms of the virus, while 38% were asymptomatic. For the remaining 10%, it was unknown whether they were exhibiting symptoms.
Of the 200 breakthrough cases Alaska health officials analyzed for a possible variant of the virus, 73 involved a variant of concern, including 54 instances of the Alpha variant and 15 of the Delta variant.
A small number of cases among vaccinated people is expected, health officials said.
The state’s new report comes as Alaska faces an increase in COVID cases, with multiple outbreaks drawing attention to more recent vaccine breakthrough cases.
In Sitka, Alaska, 18 out of 60 recent breakthrough cases reportedly involved vaccinated individuals. Two of the three cases identified last week in connection with a Southeast Alaska cruise involved people who were fully vaccinated. The outbreak has now grown to 10 cases.
Foo Fighters cancel concert for ‘vaccinated only’ after vaccinated band member gets COVID
The Foo Fighters’ anticipated return to the stage in Los Angeles was postponed after someone within the organization tested positive for COVID, CNN reported.
On July 14, the band announced via its verified Twitter account:
Why America Needs a Grand Strategy
Dwight Eisenhower famously said, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” In other words, leaders must create a conceptual framework from which their policies and actions will flow.
The concept of “grand strategy” is a reference from which a nation’s historical, cultural, economic, diplomatic, and military thought is brought to bear to create a strategic synthesis. In confronting the threat posed by China, America needs a grand strategy that preserves our essential national sovereignty while embracing our inheritance of Britain’s strategic imperative to defend the freedom of the commons.
The English military theorist Sir Basil Liddell Hart once opined that “grand strategy forces policymakers to look beyond the war to the subsequent peace.” Without such a synthesis defining the national interest, policy-making is reactive, often haphazard, and always dangerous. We are then reduced to what President Obama summed up as his strategic outlook—“don’t do stupid sh**”—while muddling from crisis to crisis.
Assuming we want the U.S. to plan like Ike rather than flounder like Barack or Joe, where should we look for guidance? Often, it’s wise to begin at the beginning.
David Morgan-Owen argues that the modern concept of grand strategy arose not in the aftermath of the two great world wars but with the struggle of Imperial Britain to control the “Empire’s anxieties over its global security challenges.” This was particularly highlighted by Britain’s dealings with the emerging German Empire.
Even at the height of their ambitions in the late 19th century, Kaiser Wilhelm I and his chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, were haunted by Great Britain. On the European chessboard, the island kingdom, wielding its significant economic and military might with strategic flexibility, had already laid Napoleon low—a clear warning to Berlin.
During the Congress of Berlin in 1878, called to settle the aftermath of the Russo–Turkish War, Bismarck, whose armies had conquered Denmark, Austria, and France in less than a decade, would not even proffer a suggestion unless it had been blessed by Queen Victoria’s first minister, Benjamin Disraeli. Indeed, upon the old conjurer’s arrival at the Berlin summit, the usually laconic Bismarck yelled across the hall: “There is the Man!”
In 1904 Lord Esher, confidant of King Edward VII, contrasted the differences in strategic outlook between the global British superpower and its European-centric rival Germany. The issues confronting Berlin, he noted, were “simple and stable compared with those affecting our world-wide Empire, and they are purely military. There is, on the other hand, hardly any point on the earth’s surface which can change ownership, and certainly not a modification in the relative power of two foreign states, can take place without affecting the National Strategy of Great Britain.”
