Americans are outraged Covid-era mask rules have started creeping back into daily life, with an entire hospital system issuing a new mandate and a public subway suggesting face coverings be worn.
One hospital system in Monterey, California, which treats nearly 400,000 patients a year, this week reinstated its face mask mandate for visitors and patients.
Meanwhile several counties in San Francisco’s Bay Area have also brought back mask rules in healthcare facilities ahead of flu season.
And this week, New York City’s health department again began recommending people mask-up while using public transport as the nation heads into winter.
But the new recommendations in Monterey and NYC prompted furious reactions from many residents, who demanded health officials ‘move on’ from the Covid era.
One New Yorker declared ‘tired of this’ on an Instagram post shared by the NYC health department that said ‘Mask up, NYC!’
Another commenter added ‘This is a joke right? Masks don’t work’, while another wrote: ‘You’re still pushing this?’
And in response to the face mask mandate at a California hospital, one resident told KSBW news: ‘I think it’s good for everybody to kind of go back to normal and move on.’
The mandates come as the US heads into the annual flu season, which tends to start in October and peak through December and February.
Officials in California said the mandate was especially important because of falling uptake of the Covid and flu vaccines.
Official surveillance shows there is yet to be a surge in the flu, Covid or other respiratory viruses this year.
Cases of a mild form of pneumonia have picked up among children, however.
The test positivity rate for flu peaked at eight percent on August 10, data shows, but in the latest week had fallen to 6.6 percent.
Revealing the mask mandate for the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, its infection specialist Dr Martha Blum said: ‘Now is the time to really make these preparations and be reminded of what we can do to prevent things from really taking off at a sharp increase.
‘As we like to say, Noah built the ark before the flood.’
Urging people to wear masks, New York City’s Health Department said: ‘Wearing a mask in crowded indoor settings can help protect you from viruses like Covid and the flu this season.
‘Masking up also protects others if you’re sick.’
Mask mandates became a staple in many Democrat states during the Covid pandemic as a way to stop the virus spreading.
But studies have failed to show they reduced infections or deaths.
A major review by the Cochrane Institute found they make ‘little to no difference’ to someone’s risk of catching Covid.
At the same time, some research suggests Covid measures like masking and social distancing may put people — especially children — more at risk of severe infections.
They say it robs children of exposure to diseases early in life, which means their immune system may not develop correctly.
Some have reacted positively to the news, however, with one saying online: ‘Immunocompromised here. It means a lot to us when people wear a mask.’
A second said, ‘thank you for this messaging!’, and a third added, ‘Wish this was normal. Let’s take care of our health and each other please’.
Flu surveillance by the CDC shows that the proportion of flu tests that detected the virus has remained level for the latest three weeks that data is available, at 0.6 percent.
The CDC also publishes a map of the impact of flu by state, which currently shows almost every state has minimal activity of the virus. Only three — Indiana, Ohio and Virginia — have low activity.
