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Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Maybe now you’re hoping to celebrate Christmas and Dr. Fauci’s retirement, drink some egg nog at a party and not obsess over COVID during the holidays? Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer has other ideas, and desperately wants to bring back mask mandates to the county’s ten million people due to a rise in cases.

Speaking at a press conference Thursday, she reminded us that the pandemic is definitely not over (even though President Joe Biden said months ago that it was):

There is this common line of thinking that the pandemic is over and COVID is no longer of concern, but these numbers clearly demonstrate that COVID is still with us.

She went on to chide you into getting your (ineffective) boosters and indicated that a new mask mandate might come as soon as next week:

Given both the increases in hospitalizations and the lack of certainty in the winter trajectory for COVID-19, continuing some common-sense mitigation strategies that we know work to limit transmission and illness, including masking and being up to date on vaccines and boosters, remains a very sensible approach. [Emphasis mine.]

The rise in cases has caused the county to move into the “medium” category according to the CDC’s guidelines, but Ferrer predicted it will move into the “high” category next week. That would trigger an automatic mandate by her rules.

Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD has been a fierce critic of “The Science™” used during the pandemic, and he has thoughts. Although his opinion piece was posted in July, it’s still valid today:

Please read my OpEd with the legendary experts @drklausner @DrScottBalsitis & Neeraj Sood from last JULY about why @lapublichealth should NOT bring back mask mandates. What was true then is 10x more valid today! https://t.co/V6WQRstZKN @MarlaTellez @BillFOXLA @Elex_Michaelson

— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) December 2, 2022

Ferrer’s press conference comes as my colleague Mike Miller reports on a new study that shows N95 masks are no better at stopping the spread of COVID than cloth masks, which most thinking people always knew are useless (though it was nice when Dr. Leana Wen confirmed them to be mere “facial decorations” way back in December of 2021).

RedState Editor-at-large Kira Davis joined the John Phillips radio show on LA’s 790 KABC Friday to discuss the mask madness. Phillips asked her, “Do you believe that LA County would be dumb enough to bring back the mask mandate now?”

“Come on, what kind of a question is that?” Davis asked, laughing. “Of course! Is LA County dumb enough to do anything? …the answer is yes…

“Of course, Barbara Ferrer is going to bring this back. Listen: she is mad. She wants revenge because as you well know, my boss over at RedState, Jennifer Van Laar, she’s the managing editor, she broke the story about the study that Ferrer and everybody else used to impose these worthless mask mandates. And of course, now we know that there was a lot of nepotism involved, and her daughter was the author of that study that the CDC used, and that really pushed Barbara Ferrer back off of her intention to mask LA back in June and July of this past year.”

Are there other reasons Barbara would want to bring back draconian ineffective mandates? Davis has one answer [emphasis mine]:

The problem is and has always been that there’s a lot of money attached to COVID emergency services, and restrictions. As you and I well know, the governor [Gavin Newsom] has decided he’s going to hold on to his emergency power. Until supposedly February of 2023, which will mark three years we’re going into of emergency powers for the governor.

Listen:

It’s weird how folks like Fauci, Newsom, and Ferrer just can’t seem to let go of the pandemic and realize we have to live with COVID, not ruin more lives with our responses to it. Most of us don’t want to live like the Chinese, however, who have imposed near-total lockdowns, causing riots in several cities against their unhinged and impossible “zero-COVID” strategy. But Ferrer almost sounds jealous of their regulations:

Ferrer was also asked if @lapublichealth condones China’s “zero COVID” policies? She dodged and said it’s not her place to judge what another country does. @FoxNews

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 1, 2022

The $637,000-a-year director, who is not in fact a medical doctor (John Phillips loves to call her the “fake doctor”), just can’t seem to let go of the pandemic or her lust to tell people what to do. What many people don’t know, however, is that the Board of Supervisors could get rid of her at any time:

Barbara Ferrer is not elected. She’s a county health official who serves at the pleasure of the county board of supervisors.

If 3 of 5 board members wanted to move in another direction, they’d be able to. So far, they haven’t wanted to.

Those board members answer to voters. https://t.co/v1ywSc4EdB

— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) December 1, 2022

Angelenos’ best hope to stop more mandates is to let the supervisors know—loudly and emphatically—that they’ve had enough. It would be in all of our best interests if Ferrer followed Fauci off the stage and into retirement.

–> RedState has covered Ferrer extensively. See all our articles here.