Los Angeles often leads the way in nonsensical, dangerous mandates and regulations, and now, as the city copes with a record heat wave, the Department of Recreation and Parks is nevertheless requiring kids to wear masks indoors at all its facilities. I’m sure playing basketball in a sweaty face-covering obstructing your breathing is healthy on so many levels.

Thank you, Marla! BTW – this weekend, in 100° heat, @LACityParks will continue to require kids playing sports to mask inside all rec centers (in addition to the parents watching, and vaccine mandates for all). They refuse to lift this part of the SAFERLA order. It’s insane. pic.twitter.com/xJGXSLZuFW

— LA Uprising (@UprisingLa) September 2, 2022

The Park Department’s website lists its requirements on its website in large font, all-caps text. Don’t they know that using all caps on the internet is considered shouting?

CURRENT LA CITY GUIDELINES AND THE MOST RECENT CITY HEALTH MANDATE REQUIRES MASKING AT ALL INDOOR FACILITIES AND REQUIRES THE CITY TO CHECK PROOF OF VACCINATION AS A CONDITION OF ENTRY.

ALTHOUGH THE LA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH NOW ALLOWS BUSINESSES TO REMOVE INDOOR MASK MANDATES AND MODIFY THEIR PROOF OF VACCINATION STATUS REQUIREMENTS BASED ON THEIR BUSINESS NEEDS, THE CITY’S HEALTH ORDER DOES NOT YET CONFORM TO THAT GUIDANCE AND THE CURRENT REQUIREMENTS REMAIN UNCHANGED.

AS A CITY OF LOS ANGELES FACILITY, THE DEPARTMENT OF RECREATION AND PARKS (RAP) RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR INDOOR MASK MANDATES AND PROOF OF VACCINATION MUST CONFORM TO THE CITY’S HEALTH ORDERS WHICH CURRENTLY REQUIRES ALL INDIVIDUALS BE MASKED WHILE INDOORS AT CITY FACILITIES (INCLUDING GRIFFITH OBSERVATORY AND CABRILLO MARINE AQUARIUM) AND WHICH REQUIRES PROOF OF VACCINATION AS A CONDITION OF ENTRY. FOR THOSE UNABLE TO PROVIDE PROOF OF COVID-19 VACCINATION, ALTERNATIVE PROGRAMMING IS AVAILABLE. INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND HERE HTTPS://BIT.LY/RAPALT

Doesn’t that read like it was written two years ago? When almost everything has returned to some sense of normalcy, why would LA Parks enforce requirements that are dangerous and counter-productive? Many doctors and scientists claim that masks don’t even do much if anything to stop the spread of COVID. A group of UCLA and USC doctors wrote a letter to the LA Board of Supervisors all the way back in February:

It is clear from these data that infections continued to increase despite the imposition of the mask mandate suggesting limited or no efficacy of the mask mandate.

They were referring to data that showed that after Los Angeles imposed a mask mandate in June of 2021, COVID cases kept rising into December. One of the doctors, Jeffrey D. Klausner, “is also opposed to requiring children to wear masks in schools, saying that 70%, or more, of children attending school, have been infected or been vaccinated or both, giving them immunity from severe disease.” If you don’t need them in schools, you certainly don’t need them to play hoops.

Meanwhile, it doesn’t take a scientist to know that playing sports in a mask when it’s hot outside is uncomfortable and makes breathing more difficult. Why are they doing this? Because they have to follow the City of LA’s “SAFER LA” edict, which was issued by Mayor Eric Garcetti in April of this year. Much has changed since April, and this backward-leaning document should not be guiding the way as we approach Labor Day. The first line of the order, for instance, reads: “The County of Los Angeles is currently experiencing increases in COVID-19 cases and test positivity rates, and related hospitalizations are no longer in decline.” That is simply no longer true; in fact the exact opposite is the case.

Parents on Twitter were outraged, with many of them tweeting responses like these:

Masks are #ChildAbuse. pic.twitter.com/RdffwQH2hN

— Not Masked (@Fuzz_Universe) September 3, 2022

Health authorities have lost so much credibility during these last two and a half years that they may never get it back. It’s silly, punitive mandates like these that have caused so many to lose faith. Good for the Alliance of Los Angeles County Parents, Urgency of Normal, LA Uprising, Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD, Julie Hamill, and all the other underground parents fighting for normalcy.